Sophia Jackson and the Lightning Thief
by WelshGirl4Life
Summary: Sophia Jackson was what you would call an average ADHD and dyslexic 12 year old girl. Well, she had been until she went to that stupid museum with her school. Why does everything always seem to happen to her? Fem!Percy
1. My maths teacher explodes

**I don't own Percy Jackson**

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><p>You rarely hear of a girl being the hero, typically in today's society whenever someone hear the word hero they instantly thought of a guy, but that's just how it's always been. I'm not saying that there are no female heroes, there are, but thanks to the stories we heard growing up it's only natural for us to think of some muscular guy running around and saving people. However for every stereotype there is always someone who breaks expectations.<p>

Although now that I think about, I may sound like I'm a little bitter. Or perhaps think way too highly of myself. However I would like to point out that I was told that if I wrote my story down I'd feel better about all that happened, almost like therapy. So I decided to give it go, and I'll promise that I will try not to hold back on the details.

I guess I should start by saying I never wanted any of this to happen. I was very much content in going from school to school every year, being treated differently because I'm dyslexic and have ADHD. Although at the time I would have wished to be like all the other kids my age, and not get kicked out of each school that accepted me. Despite being labelled as a "Troubled Child" by nearly every adult I met.

However, looking back now I probably should have paid more attention to the saying be careful what you wish for. Don't get me wrong, if given the option now to be "normal" I wouldn't take it. I've grown to love my life the way it has played out, of course I have regrets but so does everyone else.

But despite having no regrets I still feel as though I should warn you. If you feel as though you recognize yourself in this story, or if you've seen or done something strange, something almost inhuman, I'm begging you, stop reading immediately. Because the moment you realise it…. The moment you think you have it all figured out They'll know.

And once they do, they will find you, and they will not hesitate to kill you. Please don't think I'm exaggerating for entertainment purposes. I'm not. But if you decide to carry on reading and find yourself recognising yourself in these pages, the find help immediately. There are people like me everywhere, and once you've identified them they will protect you and get you to safety.

But if you think this is some elaborate piece of fiction, written for your own enjoyment. Then great! Read on. I hope you find my story entertaining.

But please, don't take my warning lightly.

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><p>My name is Sophia Jackson. And up until recently, I was just an average 12 year old girl stuck at Yancy Academy for troubled kids. Am I a troubled kid? Sort of. It's not like I can say my school record is spotless, but then again it's not as though I purposely misbehaved. Somehow I've managed to get myself expelled six schools. Which is apparently a lot easier than it sounds.<p>

But again, I'd like to remind you that it wasn't because I tried to get into trouble. Trouble just likes to find me at the most in-opportune moments.

For example, during my fifth-grade field trip to the Saratoga battlefield I had a little accident with a war cannon. But in my defence I wasn't _exactly, _aiming towards the school bus, and I didn't _know _it was going to blow up like it did. It just happened despite what the teachers say. _Honest!_

Then before that in fourth-grade, my class took a behind the scenes tour of marine world and I accidentally leant on the wrong lever. To make a long story short, the class ended up taking an unexpected swimming lesson. But no one was hurt, so really I think my teachers were being a little unreasonable.

Then before that…. You've probably gotten the point by now. But as I said earlier, none of it was done on purpose.

Anyway, back to the story.

At the moment I was stuck in a yellow bus filled with 20 or so mental case kids, heading towards the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan to look at the Greek and Roman exhibits. I know it doesn't sound like it would be interesting or fun, but my Latin teacher Mr. Brunner was leading the trip, so I had hopes.

Mr. Brunner didn't look like someone you would call _cool__, in fact he looked exactly how you would imagine a Latin teacher to look like._He had matted brown hair and wore a frayed tweed jacket that smelt highly of coffee. When he was younger he had been in an accident that left him paralysed from the waist down, so he had to navigate everywhere in a wheel chair.

But he was the only teacher in the school whose lessons didn't put me in a boredom induced coma. On multiple occasions he had us running up to the blackboard to write as many Greek and Roman names we could think of, while he swung a ruler around his head like a mad man threatening to give us detention if we weren't able to complete the task. Of course he never did give us detention, but his teaching methods seemed to help us remember a lot more than if we were stuck reading from some dusty old textbooks.

Plus he had the epic collection of Greek swords and armour that he often brought into class to let us try out. Without the principle knowing of course. I doubt he'd like the idea of the mild looking Latin teacher bringing in weapons for a class of hyperactive delinquents to wave around.

So you can probably see why I was looking forward to this trip.

But despite my excitement that my favourite teacher would be leading this trip. There was one thing – person – that could damped my spirits no matter how good a day could seem to be going. And that was Mrs. Dodds. She had been the first to volunteer to help Mr. Brunner look after us kids when the trip had first been announced. However I couldn't help feeling there was a different reason behind her coming along. There was no way she was coming along for the goodness of her heart (that's if she even had one).

Mrs. Dodds was the worst teacher I have ever had, and that's coming from someone who's had a lot. She constantly wore her hair up in a tight bun that seemed almost glued to her head, not a single hair was ever out of place, and she permanently wore a leather jacket with matching trousers that looked like second skin on her. Making her seem like some kind of biker wannabe.

She had instantly fallen in love with the school's freckled faced, red haired kleptomaniac Nancy Bobofit, who she caught sticking chewing gum to the back of my friend Grover's coat. Instead of yelling at Nancy like any other sane teacher would, she found a way to blame me instead. Which ended up being one of the many reasons why I hated her so much.

Nancy and I on the other hand, had been enemies since the first time we met. I'm not exactly sure what I did to her, but it was enough for her to hate my guts from meeting me on the first day of school. She made it her job to make mine and Grover's lives a living hell. As if being stuck at a boarding school for criminals in training.

On a lighter note however was Grover Underwood, my best friend. He was a scrawny looking kid, who despite being in the sixth grade looked as though he had been held back a few years. He was the only one in our class with bad acne and looked as though he had the start of a beard coming along. He was also unlucky enough to be stuck with some kind of muscle disease in his legs, which, thanks to a note at the beginning of the year, had him excused from P.E for life. But this unfortunately made him an easy target for Nancy's bullying.

Which brings us back to the bus, where I had to watch Nancy pelt Grover with chunks of her peanut butter sandwiches.

'I'm going kill her!' I growled, already halfway out of my seat, ready to tackle the red head into the aisle.

'Don't Sophia.' Grover hissed, grabbing onto my arm and trying to pull me back onto my seat. 'You're already on probation. Besides I like peanut butter.'

He started to pick out pieces of the sandwich from his curly brown hair, trying to keep as much dignity as he could with peanut butter in his hair. I didn't like it, but I did what he wanted me to do, and sat as quietly and as calmly as a kid with ADHD could. All the while trying not to attack the frizzy haired klepto.

Mr. Brunner rolled at a leisurely pace through the museum as the rest of delinquents followed behind dutifully, listening as he talked with enthusiasm about all the artefacts on display. The vast majority of museum patrons kept a wide gap between themselves and our troupe, glancing wearily at us as the majority of the group continued to _loudly _talk amongst themselves.

I on the other hand found it really interesting to learn about all of these things, but it was getting harder to understand what he was saying from the amount of giggling coming from Nancy and her idiot friends. I tried to ignore them, and even pushed myself to the front of the group, but it was quickly becoming an impossible task to understand Mr. Brunner.

'There are twelve Olympian Gods. With the big three, Zeus, Poseidon and Hades at the top of the hierarchy,' Mr. Brunner stated as he pointed to the statues meant to represent the Gods. 'While the gods were known for the immense amount of power they held, they were also known for their rivalry. It is said that they were always fighting, always threatening war.'

The rest of Mr. Brunner's speech was drowned out by the annoying, nasal laugh of Nancy Bobofit which was quickly backed up by her cronies. I tried ignoring them and continued to listen to Mr. Brunner, but Nancy's constant giggling about the statues of naked men drowned out the lecture.

'Will you shut up?' All eyes shot towards me as my frustration reached its peak and I ended up shouting at Nancy, which wasn't completely intentional.

'Miss. Jackson, if you have your own opinion I'm sure the class will be glad to hear it.' My eyes shot towards my feet in embarrassment, I was pretty sure my face resembled a tomato.

'Sorry sir,' He nodded at me before moving away to face an image showing a man eating his kids.

'Since you are so keen to participate in this tour, then maybe you could tell us what this represents,' I felt relief flood me when I realised I actually recognised the picture.

'That's Kronos, the king god-'

'God?' I paused for a second before correcting myself.

'Titan, sorry, he was given a prophecy when his wife was pregnant that said something about one of his kids overthrowing him, so to stop that from happening he decided to eat his kids. He almost successfully managed to eat all of his, but his wife caught on to what he was doing and gave him a rock when baby Zeus was born, the hid Zeus in the hills on the island furthest away from their home.

Then Zeus was old enough, he disguised himself as Kronos' servant and his father to barf up his brothers and sisters,' Collective groans came from most of the girls in the class, whilst the boys starting whispering to their friends about how 'wicked' or 'cool' that was.

'Quite down please, Miss. Jackson, is there anything else you'd like to add.' I bit my lip in thought before sighing and deciding to continue my explanation.

'A massive war erupted between the Titans and Kronos' kids, who decided to name themselves Gods. Eventually the Gods won, and the Titans who didn't side with them during the war were punished in various ways. After the war Zeus, Poseidon and Hades ended up splitting the three main realms between them. Zeus got the sky, Poseidon the sea and Hades the Underworld.' I raised my eyebrows at Mr. Brunner when I finished wondering if I said enough.

'Well done, Miss. Jackson,' Mr. Brunner was about to continue speaking when Nancy scoffed to her friends.

'Know it all,' her friends giggled loudly as if she had just said the most amazing joke. 'Why do we need to know this anyway? It's not like we're going to need to know why some crazy, made up guy ate his kids!'

'Excellent question Miss. Bobofit,' Grover and I shared a smirk at Nancy's expense, Mr. Brunner was perhaps one of the only teachers at Yancy who actually treated people equally. That meant that even Nancy got into trouble during his lessons._'_Miss. Jackson, could you please explain to Miss. Bobofit why you'll need to know this.'

I shook my head at Mr. Brunner, not sure of the answer myself. I felt slightly disgruntled that Mr. Brunner would single me out, out of the thirty other people in my class, especially since I gave him a pretty good answer for an out of the blue question.

'I don't know' despite looking slightly disappointed, he didn't seem all that surprised by my answer.

'Well, half credit Miss. Jackson. Yes, Zeus did in fact feed his father a mixture of mustard and wine which caused him to throw up his children, who, being immortal had become fully grown whilst in his stomach. Speaking of stomachs, I can hear some of yours growling so I suggest we all make our ways back to the entrance to have our lunches. You all have an hour before we meet back here, then we'll make a start on the great heroes, specifically Hercules.'

Grover and I followed everyone else as they hurried out to the front steps, making sure we wouldn't get in the way of the guy who kept messing around trying to push their friends into the way of anyone who was unlucky enough to be in the museum at the same time as us.

'Miss. Jackson please stay behind, I'd like a word,' I looked at Grover apologetically, but he just shrugged off any attempts of me apologising.

'Don't worry about me. I'll save you a seat.' I smiled in thanks and turned to face Mr. Brunner.

'If this is about me shouting at Nancy when you were still speaking, I'm really, really sorry. Nancy had been –' Mr. Brunner just held up a hand to stop me from carrying on what would have been a very long rant on my part.

'I am aware of Miss. Bobofit's actions, and I assure once we return to the school I will be having words with her. But that is not the reason why I asked you to stay behind.'

'Then what's the reason?'

He smiled at me warmly as he began telling me how much he wanted to see me succeed this year, and how disappointed he would be if I had to leave the school because of bad grades. And that he didn't want to see me missing out on a bright and successful future because I let my "disadvantages" hold me back.

Even though he had said this to me multiple times before, I still thought it was a little unfair.

I was working hard, and I was getting extra help from my teachers (except Mrs. Dodds, because let's face it that would be a disaster), but I was still struggling in class and with homework. I could barely read whatever I was given, and thanks to my ADHD I couldn't concentrate long enough to try and decipher the jumbled up letters. But still Mr. Brunner liked to pay close attention to me, and kept reminding me of how much he wanted me to do well this year. And while I appreciated the support outside of Grover and my mother, it still got a little irritating.

But, like always, I promised to try my hardest, even though I knew that my hardest, was probably still not good enough. My words seemed to please Mr. Brunner and he nodded proudly.

'Why don't you head outside and make the most of your lunch hour. I'm sure Grover is waiting for you. Besides, it looks like it'll rain soon, best make the most out of the sunshine while it lasts.'

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><p>It looked as though Mr. Brunner's prediction about it going to rain seemed like it may come true. Whilst we had been inside, dark clouds had rolled over head blocking out the sun that had been shining down on us for the entire ride into Manhattan. What was weird though, no one else seemed to notice. Pedestrians kept walking through the busy streets as though the sudden change in weather was perfectly normal.<p>

Grover and I were sat on the edge of the fountain that stood outside the museum, far away from the other kids as possible without having to leave Manhattan. Mainly because we didn't want to be associated with our classmates who were currently wreaking havoc on the steps of the museum. Some were attempting to hang upside down on railings, and those who failed were instantly cheered and laughed at. Some were attempting to throw pieces of their lunch at pigeons that attempted to settle down on the steps. And of course Nancy was trying to pickpocket an old lady's bag near the museum entrance, and as usual Mrs. Dodds pretended she couldn't see anything happening.

I had barely sat down when Grover turned to me and asked,

'Detention?'

'From Mr. Brunner? No. He just wanted to talk,' I shrugged, opening my lunch and pulling out an apple.

''bout what?'

'Not much, he just told me he wanted me to do well this year and that her can see me becoming successful as long as I don't give up too easily,' I took a big bight of my apple as Grover nodded absentmindedly. He had this weird glint in his eye that made me think he knew something I didn't.

Shrugging that thought off I concentrated on eating my apple when Grover spoke up, sounding completely lost in thought.

'Do you want this? I'm not really hungry.' I looked at him weirdly as he held up his apple.

Looking back to the apple in my hand I gave it a pointed look, but when Grover didn't realise my point I sighed and took his apple anyway. We sat in silence for a while and I stared down the busy streets of Manhattan, thinking about how close I was to home. It would have been so easy to take off running down the street and make my way home, mom would be happy to see me.

But then, the more I thought about it, the more I realised that one; while my mom would have been ecstatic to see me she would have been disappointed that I had left school without permission. And two, I would feel guilty for leaving Grover alone, he was the only real friend I had ever had so running away so that I could have some source of comfort went against my very nature.

A red blur streaked past me, bringing out of my thoughts.

'Oops,' a nasal like voice mocked, as half a packed lunch was tipped into Grover lap.

I looked up and glared at Nancy Bobofit who had her hands on her hips, and was shaking her head at Grover in mock disappointment.

'You should really be more careful Grover,' She tutted, a nasty smirk growing on her face. 'You're too clumsy for your own good. You never know what you might run into.'

I exhaled angrily as I tried to keep calm. I tried to remember what the school's councillor had told me to do whenever I got mad, but my mind went blank. I started to shake from as I tried to hold back my anger but the more Nancy carried on giggling, the angrier I became.

Then for a second, everything went red.

I can't remember what happened next. All I knew was that one second Nancy was in front of us, laughing and making fun of Grover, then the next she was on her butt sitting in the ice cold fountain behind us.

I looked around in confusion trying to understand what had just happened. But all I could concentrate on was Nancy screaming at the top of her lungs that I had pushed her, and the rest of my classmates gossiping and pointing towards with looks of wonderment and disbelief.

'Did you guy's see-?'

'The water it just-'

'- Water grabbed her-'

'How did she do that?'

My brain couldn't make sense of what was being said, but it seemed like everyone but me had seen what had just happened and even they were confused by it. They made it seem like the water had just grabbed her and pulled her into the fountain, and it seemed like everyone was linking me the occurrence. But that wasn't possible. Right?

Mrs. Dodds the materialised out of nowhere, going straight towards Nancy (who could now be considered hysterical) and help her out of the fountain. She was only to calm the screaming girl down on the promise that she would buy her a new pair of trousers from the museum gift shop.

After seeing Nancy off with her friends, she turned to me. Her eyes narrowing into slits and her nostrils flared dangerously, reminding me of the theory I came up with a couple months back that she wasn't human.

'Now honey,' I swallowed thickly, knowing that I was in big trouble now. 'Follow me.'

Her sickly sweet voice left no room for argument. Slowly and shakily I got to my feet, only for a hand to shoot out and grab the back of my jacket pulling me away from the teacher.

'Sophia didn't push Nancy, I did. She had noth-'

'Enough!' I jumped in shock at the loudness of her words, not expecting her to shout at that moment. Poor Grover looked as though he might wet his pants. But surprisingly Grover still persisted.

'But she didn't-'

'You _will __not say another word, and you will remain here until I return._ Is that clear Mr. Underwood?' He paled and nodded rapidly, sitting back down quickly. I smiled as reassuring as I could at Grover.

'Grover its fine,' I leant in close to him and whispered 'Besides, the only thing she can do is give me detention.' Grover looked like he was about to protest, but couldn't say anything as Mrs. Dodds shrieked. And I mean literally shrieked. She sounded like someone had just dragged their nails down a chalk board.

'Today Miss. Jackson,' Looking up I expected to see Miss. Dodds perhaps only a few feet away from me, but found her staring down at me from the top of the stairs, near the museum entrance.

_I blinked. __How had she gotten there so fast?_

Sharing one last worried look with Grover, I jogged as quickly as I could towards the entrance. My mind working impossibly fast as I tried to figure out how she had gotten to the entrance so quickly, but just came up blank.

Looking back at it, I now realized that how she got to the top of the stairs was the least of my worries.

Reaching the top of the stairs I found that Mrs. Dodds had disappeared once more. Deciding that she had already gone inside the museum, I didn't hesitate stepping through the glass doors and into the auditorium. Not seeing her anywhere in the entrance hall I risked calling out to her.

'Mrs. Dodds?'

'Did you really think you'd get away with it?' I looked around in confusion, trying to find my maths teacher but came up short.

Figuring I would probably have more luck finding her by looking in a different part of the museum, I began to head in the direction of the Greek and Roman display room.

'It was an accident; I don't even remember pus-'

'Don't play dumb with me honey,' I spun in a circle as her voice echoed around the room, but still couldn't see her. I couldn't help but feel like I was in some kind of low budget horror film. 'It doesn't suit you.'

'I seriously don't know what you're talking about,' I insisted, finally entering the Greek and Roman wing. Mrs. Dodds stood looking up at a stele with her hands clasped behind her back.

'Drop the act honey, I know it was you,' She continued, not bothering to turn around to look at me. 'I had my suspicions when I first met you, but your _performance_ at the fountain just confirmed it.'

'Mrs. Dodds, I don't know what you're talking about!' She appeared directly in front of me, her mouth turned up into a snarl. I took a step back in surprise.

'Where is it?' Her voice changed to a horrifying growl, something completely different to anything I had ever heard her sound like before.

'What are you talking about?' I squeaked. My palms started to sweat as I started to panic. Something was defiantly wrong here.

'Tell me where it is and I promise to kill you quickly, but if you lie," She trailed off as she looked me up and down in hunger. I quickly started to back away from her.

'Kill me? Is this some kind of sick joke?' I looked around desperately hoping to see people laughing my expense. Only, we were the only ones here.

'Where is it?' She insisted, her voice growing more and more animal like every time she opened her mouth.

'I don't know what you are talking about!' Mrs. Dodds hunched forward into a predatory stance and gave me a bone chilling grin, before jumping high into the air and exploding into this huge leathery human like bird.

'Holy –' Mrs. Dodds dove towards me, curled claws aimed directly for me. I turned around and dove for the ground.

Only getting to my feet when she had flown straight past me. I tried running for the only other exit in the room, only to find my way blocked by Mrs. Dodds. I still couldn't understand how she was so fast.

'Just leave me alone!' I turned around again and tried to reach the other exit. But once again, I found my way blocked by the weird creature that had once been Mrs. Dodds. 'Whatever you think I have I don't have it!

'Sophia!' Both me and the creature started at the sudden appearance of my Latin teacher wheeling himself through the other entrance.

Once realising that he had my attention he threw something at me, and it was only as it got closer to me I realized it was a pen. Out of instinct, I raised my hands to catch it. But when I brought my hands down, what I had thought was a pen was actually a three foot long bronze sword. The same one I remembered Mr. Brunner using in class.

'No!' Came the loud growl behind me.

I turned around in time to see Mrs. Dodds diving bombing towards me once more.

I fell to the floor automatically, and felt the air shift as her long talons barely missed ripping my back to shreds. Stumbling to my feet, I was just in time to Mrs. Dodds turning mid-air and fly straight towards me. Fangs bared and talons reaching towards me she shrieked, just like she had at the fountain.

Somehow in that moment I knew exactly what to do, lifting the sword and bracing myself I waited for the right moment. When she was in reach, I fell to my knees. Spinning out of the way of her talons and raised the sword, slashing right through her leathery skin.

She shrieked in pain and in outrage, and only had a second to turn and glare at me before exploding in a shower of bronze dust.

I stayed were I was kneeling, paralyzed. Staring at the pile of bronze dust that had once been my maths teacher. I stood shakily and ran my hand over my forehead, collecting the beads of sweat that had grown there.

After a few moments I finally tore my eyes away from the pile of dust, and looked down at the sword in my hand hoping it held some kind of clue as to how I managed to do what I had just done. Only instead of a sword, I now held a pen. I looked up expecting Mr. Brunner to still be at the entrance but he was gone as well.

'Did that really just happen?' I said to myself and pinched my leg hoping to find that this was in fact a dream. 'Ah!'

I flinched and rubbed my now sore skin. I looked back at the pile of dust in disbelief, hoping with every fibre of my being that if I looked at it long enough it would disappear.

'That couldn't have been real. Things like that don't happen,' I nodded my head, not actually believing in what I said. 'It was just a dream. That's all. It was just a dream.'

Even as I said that I knew that I was just lying to myself. I didn't imagine Mrs. Dodds turn into a leathery human-like bird. I didn't imagine Mr. Brunner throwing me a pen that turned into a sword then back into a pen. I didn't imaging Mrs. Dodds exploding into a cloud of bronze dust.

But for the sake of my sanity, I pretended that I did.

I turned abruptly and made my way back outside. Intending on giving the pen back to Mr. Brunner and enjoying the rest of my lunch with Grover, all the while pretending that what happened in the Greek and Roman wing of the museum didn't happen.


	2. Evil Scissors

**I DON'T OWN PERCY JACKSON**

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><p>Walking outside I did my best to hide my confusion and slight fear over what had occurred inside. <em>It was just a dream, nothing like that happens in real life.<em> I repeated over and over in my head. _Just a dream. _I let my eyes roam over the cluster of hyperactive kids running around and tourists hopping to spot Mr. Brunner but all I was unable to see anything as a mass of curly red hair appeared in front of me.

'I hope Miss. Kerr gave you what you deserve,' Nancy announced, looking smugly at me.

'Who?' I asked, wondering if she had hit her head when falling into the fountain.

'Miss. Kerr? Our Maths teacher?' She looked at me as if I had just grown four heads.

'You mean Mrs. Dodds,' she started laughing manically.

'You're stupider than I thought,' she snickered and walked away.

Who the heck was Miss. Kerr? I was pretty sure there was no Miss. Kerr at Yancy, and last I remembered Mrs. Dodds was our maths teacher. I shook my head slightly, I'm probably over thinking things. I knew for a fact that Mrs. Dodds was our maths teacher. Knowing Nancy she was probably trying to pull a prank that made no sense to everyone but her.

I sighed and made my way over to the ramp I had seen Mr. Brunner sat by, a newspaper open on his lap.

'Mr. Brunner?' I asked as I approached hesitantly, wondering if he was going to ask me about what happened inside the museum but he just smiled and beckoned me over.

'Is everything alright Sophia?'

'I just wanted to say thank you for helping me back, you probably saved my life.'

'I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about,' He looked at me oddly. 'I have been sitting out here for the past half hour reading.'

'But you saved me,' I pointed out weakly, maybe it had been all dream. 'Mrs. Dodds was about to-'

'Sophia, I don't know any Mrs. Dodds,' He interrupted gently. 'Are you feeling okay?'

'I'm fine thanks to you! If you hadn't stepped in when you did then I'd be dead right now!' I insisted, not wanting the one person who could make sense of what had just happened to ignore me.

'My dear girl, I'm afraid you must have been dreaming,' His brown eyes looked at me sympathetically, as if he just had to tell me my mom had died.

'No I wasn't!' I struggled to keep my voice at a sensible level. 'Mrs. Dodds called me into the museum after I pushed Nancy into the fountain to have a word with me and-'

'You pushed Nancy into the fountain?'

'No!' I almost yelled. I took a deep breath and sighed, deciding to drop the subject. 'Here, you dropped you pen.'

He smiled widely as if we never had that weird conversation.

'Thank you my dear, best make sure I don't lose this again hmm? Never know when you'll have a cross word to complete.'

'Right,' I nodded, pretending that, that made sense. 'I'm going to go find Grover.'

'Of course,' He said, still smiling. 'Now go ahead and enjoy the rest of your lunch.'

Grover was still sat at the fountain, eyes scanning over the crowds as he looked for me. He was clenching the edge of the fountain anxiously, and his legs were shaking as if he was struggling to keep them from bouncing. He only relaxed when he saw me making my way towards him.

'Finally' He breathed when I threw myself down beside him. 'I was worried.'

'Sorry, I had to talk to Mr. Brunner. I found his pen inside the museum and went to give it back to him.' I decided that it would probably be better if I didn't tell Grover about Mrs. Dodds exploding into some human-bird hybrid and trying to kill.

'So what did Miss. Kerr say?' I hesitated, I hadn't thought this far ahead.

'Not much,' Grover looked at me sceptically so I quickly carried on. 'I mean she yelled a bit and told me that I shouldn't go around pushing people into fountains.'

'I would have thought she'd at least give you detention,' He stated, still looking a bit suspicious.

'Guess I got lucky,' I shrugged, trying to hide how nervous I was becoming. I was never a good liar.

'Yeah,' His voice trailed off in thought, but then he started laughing to himself. 'Although I wish I had taken a picture of Nancy's face when she fell into the fountain.'

'Same,' I giggled half-heartedly.

Hopping he'd get the hint and drop the conversation, I sighed and propped myself up on my arms as I looked up at the grey sky. Why did such a beautiful day have to end so quickly? Taking a quick look around I realised that people still hadn't noticed the change in weather, nor the impending storm that was sure to happen.

I was weird. It _felt _weird.

'Hey Grover?' I didn't take my eyes off the sky and only knew I had his attention when he hummed in question. 'Do you feel something, weird?'

'What?' I winced when I realised I probably should have worded my question better.

'I mean. The air feels, tense. Like something's about to happen. Something bad.'

When I didn't get an answer I looked over at him, expecting him to be looking at me like I had lost my mind or at least be trying to hide a laugh. What I wasn't expecting was for him to have turned completely white and to be staring at me with wide eyes.

'Why do you say that?' I shrugged, watching him carefully as I answered.

'Not sure. But it feels like I should be saying something cliché like 'it's the calm before the storm'. You don't feel it?'

'Nope. No idea what idea what you're talking 'bout' He shook his head rapidly. Reminding me of a dog trying to get water out of his years.

'For someone always going on about how bad I am at lying, you're not so good yourself,' I raised an eyebrow at him waiting for him to try and explain himself.

'Look, everyone's going back inside. We better hurry before we're told off,' I watched as he quickly limped off, moving weirdly fast for someone on crutches.

Sighing in annoyance at him purposely changing the subject, I decided it would be best if I followed him. I trudged behind him reluctantly, not exactly looking forward to be going back inside the museum again. I had managed to keep my eyes on him long enough to see him glance up at the sky worriedly.

* * *

><p>We ended up staying at the museum for about another two hours. Just when we thought Mr. Brunner was about to run out of things to say about something, he turned around and spouted some more information about whichever display had grabbed his attention.<p>

But eventually we were back on the bus on our way back towards Yancy. And for the first time that year I was actually looking forward to be going back to the school. At least there it would be impossible, if not very unlikely, that a monster from a horror story would attack me.

We had been herded onto the bus by Mr. Brunner and a woman I assumed was Miss Kerr. She was blonde and had a pleasant face, a stark contrast to Mrs. Dodds. However when I passed her to get onto the bus, her nose scrunched up like she smelt something horrible. It wasn't difficult to guess at that moment that I wasn't her favourite student.

Now however, we were stuck in traffic. I think we only moved about two inches in the last five minutes. Which for twenty or so hyperactive delinquents stuck in an enclosed space with nothing to entertain them, was of course a complete disaster.

Grover and I had managed to grab the back seats before anyone else got there, and were using them to our advantage by stretching across them – since no one wanted to sit by the school weirdos – and completely ignoring the mayhem that was happening on the rest of the bus. I could imagine that the bus driver was getting disgruntled at that moment, kids were throwing bits of food left over from their lunches and various other things they had on them at each other. The teachers however had grown immune to our (the other kids) behaviour and barely flinched when a sock went flying past their heads and hit the window.

I was more surprised by the fact the bus driver didn't just pull over and leave us on the interstate.

I had successfully managed to block everyone out and was staring at the traffic in the lane next to us, amusing myself as I watched several drivers curse in frustration as they moved along at a snail's pace.

I looked across at Grover who had somehow managed to fall asleep despite all this noise, and was snoring away quite loudly. How any of his roommates got any sleep I don't know. I looked back out of the window and almost had to do a double take.

Three old ladies had settled down on lawn chairs barley a centimetre away from being run over, knitting! Well one was knitting. One was holding the ball of wool and the other was holding a pair of evil looking scissors. I didn't even know scissors could look evil, but somehow this one managed it. Rust had covered the majority of the handles and blades, and dents had appeared on the blades as though someone had used them to try and cut through stone or something.

I looked around trying to spot if anyone else had noticed them, and any of the cars passing if they had, but no one took any notice of them. How they didn't notice I don't know.

They looked like they were wearing giant potato bags, with a piece of string tied around their waist to try and give the bag some shape. Their grey hair was thin and wispy, with very little actually covering their scalp. With grey skin that looked like it was literally hanging off their bones, gave me the impression that the women were just zombies with a love for knitting rather than eating peoples brains.

I turned back to the old women and started when I realised they were looking directly at me. I rubbed violently at my eyes, thinking I was hallucinating but when I looked again they will still there. Although now they were a bit blurry.

The one holding the evil scissors smiled at me, revealing only a single tooth, and lifted the scissors up higher. In one quick movement, she then cut the string connecting the wool to the blanket the woman knitting was making.

A loud gasp came from behind me, causing me to spin around. Grover had woken up when I had been studying the three weird ladies and had decided to look over my shoulders to see what had caught my attention. He had turned deathly pale and looked as though he would faint any second.

'Grover you okay?' He shook his head rapidly and backed away from me and the window.

'Not possible... Not her... Not again…' He started muttering to himself, eyes staring down at his lap. His fingers picking at a loose piece of thread on his jeans.

'Earth to Grover,' I said placing a hand on his arm making him jump and look at me with wide eyes 'You okay?'

'Yeah, yeah. Yeah, fine,' He nodded once and went back to muttering and placing with his jeans.

I looked at him worriedly before looking out the window again, where I had to stop myself from pressing my face up against the window in disbelief. The women were gone.

I turned my head as much as I could trying to look up and down the interstate for any sign of them, but couldn't see a single sign of the. It was like they had vanished into thin air.

* * *

><p>Pretty soon, months flew past and before I knew it exams were just a day away. I tried studying, but usually just ended up throwing my books at the wall opposite my bed whenever trying to unscramble words hurt my brain too much.<p>

I went to teachers for help, and while they did try, I could see even they were getting frustrated at what little progress I managed to achieve.

And while I knew it wasn't exactly possible, I swear my dyslexia was getting worse. The more I'd concentrate on a word, the less sense it would make. I was starting to get headaches if I tried concentrating too hard, a fact which constantly made Grover laugh whenever brought up.

Lessons had even began to make less sense, and while they no longer asked me to read aloud, my ADHD was determined that I was never going to actually going to pay attention to what they were saying. I more than always ended up embarrassing myself in class whenever asked a question and had to admit I didn't know the answer. The other kids had a great time pointing at me and laughing and calling me 'stupid'.

And Miss. Kerr didn't help the situation. I still didn't know why she hated me. At least with Mrs. Dodds I knew it was because she favoured Nancy, who had declared me her enemy. But Miss. Kerr had shown that not even she liked Nancy. At least not as much as Mrs. Dodds.

Speaking of Mrs. Dodds. I still hadn't worked out how she could have been wiped completely from everyone's memory. At first I thought it was just one big prank and tried brining her up casually in conversation to try and catch them off guard.

At first every time I even so much as mentioned Mrs. Dodds I'd usually end up in an argument with them about whether or not she ever worked in school, now however people would just give me weird looks and walk away. Whenever I brought her up to Grover however, he would get extremely uncomfortable and jittery and change topic completely. Making me think that he knew more than he let on.

At the moment, I was sitting in my dorm at around 11 o'clock at night doing some last minute revision before my Latin exam in the morning. Although once again ended up throwing the book at the wall, winching when my roommate's snores stuttered, before continuing on.

I flopped back onto my bed with a huff. This was literally getting me nowhere. I stared up at the dark ceiling, contemplating just going to sleep and facing the exam with as much dignity as I could. However the thought of disappointing Mr. Brunner after he helped me so much this year made me feel guilty.

I looked back over at the clock on my bedside table, 11:05. I groaned and sat back up, I couldn't give up that easily. I grabbed my book off the floor and snuck out of the room. I know it was late, but I was seriously hoping that Mr. Brunner would still be awake to give me a quick crash course for tomorrow.

I tiptoed down the hallways, making sure I wouldn't get caught by any teachers patrolling the hallways. Feeling like some a cartoon character trying to steal something. Luckily no one was out tonight, so I wasn't going to get into trouble for being 'up to no good'.

Thankfully when I got to Mr. Brunner's office I found the door cracked open slightly, partially lighting up the hallway. I could see a shadow moving around inside and smiled in relief. Maybe there was a chance that I wouldn't fail horribly tomorrow.

When I got closer to the door I hesitated, hearing two voices inside. Recognising one as Grover I shrugged and raised a hand to knock, only to hear my name being mentioned.

'Do you think Sophia's it?'

'We cannot ignore the possibility that she may be the one we are looking for, however until she is claimed we cannot know for certain,' Claimed? What was Mr. Brunner talking about? What did he mean I might be the one they were looking for?

'But a kindly one Chiron, they don't appear for just any half-blood,' my eyebrows scrunched in confusion. Why did that name sound so familiar?

'I am very much aware of this Grover, but we cannot do anything about it right now. The moment she knows, the danger already following her will increase substantially. She cannot know anything until she reaches the camp.'

'So we just leave her completely defenceless?'

'I am aware she is your friend, however-'

'She's my best friend,' I couldn't help but smile at Grover's confession, but was still completely confused at their conversation. 'She can't end up like the other one'.

Half-blood sounded slightly racist to me, and what camp? And how was I defenceless? As far as I was aware I wasn't in any danger. And what other one? Just listening to this conversation was giving me a headache.

'I promise that we will not leave her unprotected, we will do all we can to make sure she reaches the camp safely. However it is the fates who will decide the outcome.'

'She's seen them.'

'The fates?' There was a short silence so I assumed that Grover had nodded. 'When?'

'When we got stuck in traffic on our way back here from the Met, they were sitting on the edge of the road.'

'Why didn't you anything?'

'What could you have done? It had already happened, and,' He hesitated.

'And?'

'And they cut the string.' Mr. Brunner sighed heavily.

'This is grievous news indeed.'

'You don't say?'

'I understand you're upset, however there is nothing we can do. We do not know she will die –'

'Don't say that,' Grover snapped, making me almost drop my book in surprise. I had never heard him sound so angry. 'I can't lose another one. And I know I shouldn't be attached to my charge, but she's my best friend.'

'Grover, I promise I will do everything I can to protect her. However it is up to the fates to decide if she lives or dies.' Grover sighed tiredly.

'There's another thing. She still hasn't forgotten about Mrs. Dodds.'

'Then the mist no longer works on her,' He sighed again. 'We are running out of time, we must get her to the camp before they find her.'

At that moment a loud clatter echoed through the hallway, probably someone dropping something further down the hall.

'What was that?' Grover asked

I froze when I heard someone moving in the room. I looked around hurriedly for an escape and was lucky enough to notice a small gap in the wall a little bit down from where I stood.

It was a tight fit, but I had managed to squeeze into the gap and waited. I heard the door opening the rest of the way, but was too scared to poke my head out to look to see who it was.

'No one's here,' Grover announced.

I made sure not to move until I heard the door click shut. I breathed deeply refilling my lungs with air, after I was almost squeezed to death by wall just so that I didn't get detention.

For a second I thought about carrying on eavesdropping, but on realising the door was completely shut I figured I wasn't likely to hear anything and made my way back to my room instead.

As I crawled back into bed, my mind ran over everything I had just heard. None of it made sense. At least now I knew for sure that Mrs. Dodds was in fact real and I hadn't made her up. But the rest. My head was starting to hurt again, so I decided I was better off forgetting about the conversation for now. At least that way it was easier to cope with the knowledge that my best friend has been lying to me for the entire year.


	3. Promises

**I don't own Percy Jackson**

* * *

><p>I failed. Badly.<p>

So badly in fact, I was pretty sure that the only thing I got right out of every single one of my exams was my name.

And despite what most people believed, I actually did try this time. Despite some of the kids at this school, I actually did care about my education, and on a normal day actually found what some teachers had to say interesting.

However any chance I have of getting an education was getting slimmer and slimmer, and was pretty sure than soon schools would no longer accept me. My mom had already been sent a letter explaining to her why I wouldn't be allowed back next year. I felt a stab of guilt whenever I thought of her reading that letter, and the disappointed and stressed out look she'd be wearing because I had been kicked out of another school and she would have to start looking for another one that would accept me.

The day before we left for summer vacation, Mr. Brunner had called me into his office for a chat. He then proceeded to spend the entire "conversation" (I say it like that because I barely got a word in) telling me how disappointed he was with me.

'Sophia I am extremely disappointed,' He had started. 'I had hoped that you would have been able to come back here in the fall. Especially after one of our many talks where you claimed you wished to achieve good grades.'

'I really did try sir, but I just couldn't concentrate on anything,' I explained, looking down at my feet. 'The words just kept floating off the page, and if I managed to decipher what it said my ADHD would play up and I'd get distracted by something outside the window.'

'Why didn't you say anything?'

'I didn't want to annoy anyone,' Mr. Brunner sighed and rubbed his temple.

'A teacher's job is to help his students and make sure they are comfortable within the learning environment so that they make the most out the facilities provided, not just to teach them the difference between left and right.'

'I'm sorry,' He shook his head.

'Being sorry won't make a difference,' what did he want me to say then?

That I would miss Yancy? That I didn't want to leave and would do anything to ensure that I could stay? Because that wasn't true. In actual fact I couldn't wait to leave this place. I may be upset for not doing well in my exams, and I might like learning, but I absolutely hated this place. I was pretty sure that if hell existed, Yancy would be an exact copy of it.

But then again, I would miss Grover. He had been promised a place for next year, and I was worrying that when I left that the bullying would only get worse. At least with me here I could at least try to defend him, and if that didn't work I could at least comfort him. But now that I was leaving he'd have no friends.

But maybe I was over thinking it. Maybe he would eventually become friends with someone and they could help him. But considering who our classmates were, I figured it would be best if I didn't hold my breath.

It also felt like I had let my mom down. She had been so supportive of me throughout the school year, every time we talked she'd encourage me to keep up my hard work promising me that it would pay off eventually. She had been convinced that I wouldn't be starting a new school for a long time. And now I had let her down.

And despite how much pressure he put on me, and how often I felt like I was going to rip out my hair after talking to him, I felt like I had disappointed Mr. Brunner as well. He was the only teacher who hadn't given up on me after the first week, and actually took the time to talk me through something I didn't understand and didn't give up Until I had proved that I finally understood. No matter how long it took.

'If you didn't bring me here to apologise, why am I here?' I finally lifted my head to look at him. He was looking at me intently, silently judging my reactions.

'I want you to promise me something,' I stated, his eyes boring into mine as if challenging me to say no.

'Never give up, no matter how difficult it becomes. ' I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion, I felt like I was missing a hidden message here but couldn't for the life of me figure it out.

'Okay, I promise.' He nodded, evidently pleased with my response.

He lent back in his chair, looking as though a massive weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. He indicated with his hand towards the door with a gentle smile.

'Perhaps it would be best if you went and made sure you have everything packed. Don't want to get home tomorrow and realise you've left something important behind.'

* * *

><p>The majority of the school were more or less bouncing with excitement the next morning. Kids were running back and forth between friends, saying goodbye or bragging to less fortunate about going to the Maldives or the Bahamas or Venice for summer vacation. The less fortunate being me.<p>

I was pretty sure it was the entire school's goal to embarrass me that morning. Every time someone asked me what I'd be doing for summer vacation, I could feel everyone in the general vicinity silently judging me. Causing my cheeks to flash bright red whenever they snickered after I announced I probably wouldn't be leaving Manhattan.

I could help the grin that grew on my face as I watched the prison I had been trapped in for the last year, grow smaller and smaller as the bus that would drive me and several others into the city to be picked up and taken home by parent and guardian. Granted I would be probably have to grab a cab to take me back to the apartment, but you get the point.

'We're finally going home,' I said to Grover, massive grin still in place until I realised that he didn't share my excitement. 'You okay?'

'Fine. Just, worried,' He said, a frown settling on his face.

'About what?'

'Nothing much. Did you know that rabbits symbols of rebirth?' I snorted at his hasty attempt to change topic. 'No really. That's why-'

'Grover!' I interrupted, looking at him in amusement. 'You'll see me again soon.'

'How can you be sure?' He looked down at his hands glumly.

'You're my best friend, if you think I'm going to forget about you at that easily then you really don't know,' He laughed and I did a mental victory dance at succeeding in cheering up my best friend.

'Can you promise me something?' He asked after a couple minutes of silence.

'Okay?' I asked, dragging out the word.

'If anything,' He moved his hands around in the air as if the word he was looking for would magically appear in between them. 'Weird, happens to you this summer. Even if it's something small like your next door neighbour walking through the halls naked.'

'How does that count as something small?' I asked, scrunching up my nose as I tried to get rid of the image of my elderly neighbour becoming a nudist.

'As opposed to other things, that does count as small.'

'What other things?' He hesitated, looking at me blankly. Clearly not expecting me to ask that question.

'Doesn't matter,' He rushed out, eyes pleading with me. 'Just please promise me you'll call.'

'I don't have you're number,' I pointed out.

He fished though his pants pockets and pulled out an official looking business card and handed it to me.

'Here,' I looked down at the card:

_Grover Underwood, Keeper_

_Half-Blood Hill_

_Long Island, New York_

_(800)009-0009_

'What's a keeper?' I asked, raising an eyebrow.

'Just a name my family gave me,' He shrugged. 'So? Do you promise to call me?'

'Sure,' I smiled hesitantly, suddenly beginning to realise that Grover might be just like the other kids at Yancy. Rich.

I looked at him and wondered if he was rich, but stopped myself when I figured that I would probably come across as rude and bitter. Grover had been incredibly nice to me and had officially became my first and only ever best friend, so judging him because of how the rich kids at Yancy behaved felt wrong. But I couldn't help but add it to the list of things that he had lied/hadn't told me about.

Grover grinned widely at me at my promise, and instantly began chatting excitedly about something or other. But I wasn't really listening.

The rest of the journey dragged on. I doubt Grover even noticed I was giving half-hearted responses, whenever he paused speaking and looked at me as if waiting for me to agree with whatever he was saying.

Despite attempting to convince myself that what I wasn't jealous, I couldn't help but compare my life to the one Grover was bound to have had. I'm not saying that I wasn't happy with how I was brought up, or that I wished for a different mom. I just couldn't help but feel that if we had been lucky and a dead relative had left us a ton of money, then we wouldn't have to struggle to pay the bills, whilst buying enough food to pay for two plus a Hippo and keep having to deal with said Hippo.

Okay, so the Hippo is actually my step-father, and he does actually have a name. However I prefer the name Hippo to his real name. Actually, now that I think about it, Slug sounds even better. Hippo's can be cute sometimes, especially baby Hippos. Yeah, I think I'll be calling him Slug from now on. It suits him.

* * *

><p>I stood silently with Grover at the bus stop, watching as the crowd of young rich delinquents were picked up by parents or chauffeurs. It felt good to be back home in New York, I couldn't help but smile at the feeling of homecoming that washed over me.<p>

'Happy to be home?' Grover asked, causing my smile to widen.

'You have no idea,' He laughed, shrugging his backpack off of his shoulders and dropping it at me feet and nodded at his suitcase.

'I need to go to the bathroom. Can you look after my stuff for me?'

'Sure,' I nodded.

'Great, when I'm done I'll take you home.'

He hobbled away into the public bathrooms, crutches clicking obnoxiously loud on the concrete as he went. When I was certain he was out of sight I scowled. That sounded a lot like an order. And after hours of sitting on a bus thinking over all the things my "best friend" could have lied to me about, slowly getting more and more angry with him, it was only natural for me to get even more annoyed with him when he gave me an order.

I'll say it now, but what I did next probably wasn't the smartest thing for me to do. Nor was it the best way I could have reacted.

I dragged his bags over to the bathroom doors and ran as quickly as I could to the exit, where I was luckily able to hail a cab before Grover finished in the bathroom.

'East One-hundred-and-fourth and First' I told the driver, after more or less throwing myself into the back with my bags.

* * *

><p>I'd just like to say before you meet that the name Slug, is perfectly justified for my step-father. In my opinion Slugs are fat, slimy creature who do almost nothing. The perfect description of my step-father.<p>

Before I even called him Hippo or Slug, I used to call him Smelly Gabe.

He smelt worse that a sewer, I was pretty sure he only ever took a shower once a month (minimum). His hair had pretty much vanished back into his head only months after marrying my mom, his gut was now literally hanging over his belt line and looked like it was about to eat his pants. He had a flat nose and eyes so small it was a miracle he was able see without glasses.

I was five when I first met him, when he had still been working as the manager of an electronics mega mart. Only now he could barely hold a job for longer than a month. Whenever we had money, he would instantly be gambling it away or using it to himself way to much alcohol. It was a wonder mom and I ever had enough money for food and to pay the bills.

I never actually understood why she married him, granted when we first met him he had been nice enough. He tried getting to know me, brought mom flowers. He still smelt like the sewers, but at least he was nice to us. Then after marrying mom he began to show his true colours. I asked her once why she married him, and all she said was "You'll understand when you're older".

Now all he cared about was his stupid Camaro. If someone so much as glanced at it the wrong way he'd go up the wall.

I sighed and stared up at the apartment building with dread. I was happy to be home and excited to see my mom again, but she was probably still working and wouldn't be back for at least a couple of hours. Which meant that I would be left home alone with Gabe and whoever he had decided was worth his company today.

I dragged my stuff up to the apartment, and was instantly greeted with the smell of stale beer and sweat. No matter how long mom and I cleaned this place up, and no matter how many candles and pretty smelling sprays we used the stench still lingered.

'So ye'r back are ya?" I ignored the question as I stalked past the Slug and his poker buddies, I never took the time to get to know them. 'Got any cash?'

I rolled my eyes. I've been home for all of ten seconds and he's instantly digging for money.

'No.'

He turned fully towards me, fat arm draped across the back of his chair and raised a creepily thin eyebrow at me. Nose scrunched slightly as if trying to smell something.

'Nice try. Ye took a cab from the bus station an' probably paid with a twenty. Ye can't say ye don't have anything left.' I glared at him. 'Well?'

I dug through my pockets and pulled out the six dollars given to me by the cabbie. Still glaring, I practically threw the money at him.

'Happy?' I didn't give him time to answer and I continued on to my bedroom. 'And loos the pirate accent, it doesn't suit you.'

I didn't pay attention to him as he shouted abuse at my back, his friends chortling happily as he was insulted by a twelve year old.

I had to force my bedroom door open, and had to force back a gag as the smell hit me. Old pizza boxes and wrappers littered the floor and bed. Crushed beer cans and bottles were scattered around the room, along with piles of dirty clothes.

I had to practically dig my through the mess to my window so that I could at least get rid of some of the stench that filled the room. Still gagging I pushed some of the trash on my bed onto the floor so that I would have somewhere to put bags.

Taking the hair tie off of my wrist I pulled my hair up into a low bun and held back a groan at the thought of cleaning up this mess. This was going to take hours.

Grabbing a couple of trash bags from the kitchen, I set to work. I tried holding back grimaces of disgust whenever I had to shift through Gabe's dirty laundry to look for hidden trash, or whenever I found a mouldy piece of pizza. I silently promised myself that I wouldn't be eating pizza for a long time after this.

I ended up having to remake the bed as well. After clearing the floor, my closet and every other surface in my room, I discovered that Gabe had kindly decided to completely ignore the bathroom and threw up in my bed. Not that I wouldn't have re-made my bed anyway. I didn't particularly want to fall asleep in bed that smelt of stale beer and food.

Two hours later when I was just putting the second load of laundry into the washing machine, when my favourite person in the world appeared in the doorway.

'Mom,' I rushed into her open arms, unable to stop the gigantic grin from growing.

'I've missed you so much!' She tightened her arms around me to the point I could barely breathe.

'Air mom. I need air,' I gasped, exaggerating the tightness of her hug. She laughed.

'You've grown so much since I last saw you,' she smiled as she held me at arms-length. 'You've gotten taller.'

'Barely,' I laughed.

I finally got a good look at her. She had her curly brown hair pulled up into its usual high ponytail, a few stands had fallen free and framed her heart shaped face. She had a few wrinkles, although they were mostly due to stress rather than age, and the corners of her eyes crinkled slightly when she smiled. She was wearing her Sweets on America uniform and held a big-ish bag of candy at her side, confirming my theory that she had been at work.

'Don't be so hard on yourself, you've grown at least an inch. And you look so beautiful.' She placed a hand on my cheek and for a moment I honestly thought that she might cry.

'You need glasses mom.' She chuckled.

'My eyes are just as clear as they were the first day I saw,' she dragged me over to the kitchen table and pushed me into a chair. Dropping the bag of candy down in front of me. 'C'mon. Tell me all the gossip. How was school? How's Grover.'

We sat in the kitchen just talking, catching up on the last couple of months we had missed. Happily eating the blue jelly beans she had managed to nab from work.

A few years ago, not long after they had gotten married, mom and Gabe had gotten into an argument after Gabe was convinced that it was not possible to have blue food. After that mom had spent nearly every waking hour proving him wrong. Taking the time to bake blue chocolate chip cookies, blue pancakes, and blue birthday cakes. Even going out of the way to hunt down blue candy whilst at work.

'Have you been cleaning?' She asked suddenly, eyeing the trash bags sitting near the kitchen door ready to be taken out for the garbage men.

'Yeah, Gabe had decided to take over my room and left me a couple of house warming presents.' She tutted, looking at me pointedly.

'Don't be so hard on your step-father.' I shook my head, refusing to look at her.

'He's not my step-father.' Mom sighed.

'Sophia-'

'No mom. He treats us like dirt. He doesn't respect you, he can't hold a job and I'm pretty sure that he's never even heard of a shower. I still can't work out why you married him.'

'He's been good to us-'

'Good to us?' I almost backed down when I saw how upset she looked. 'Mom we barely have enough money to survive on. Any money we do have he gambles away.'

'You'll understand one day. If it wasn't for him we wouldn't be here today.'

'I find that hard to believe.' Then, almost as if to prove my point, the Slug called from the sitting room.

'Woman! Where's my bean dip?' I looked at mom pointedly, but she just shook her head. Begging me to drop it.

'Look, how about we get out of here for a few days?' I smirked when she purposely ignored Gabe.

'What do you have in mind?'

'Well, why don't we head out to our cabin this weekend? Stay there for about a week before we start looking for a new school for you. How does that sound?' I shot out of my chair and wrapped my arms around her tightly, making her laugh.

'That sounds amazing,' I pulled away suddenly, looking at her seriously. 'What about work?'

'Already sorted. It'll just be you, me and the sea.' I smiled again.

I've always loved the sea. Mom used to tell me stories of when she used to dip me into the water when I was a toddler, and how I'd purposely shake myself out of her hold to submerge myself fully into the water. She said she always have mini heart attacks whenever I dropped out of her hold, only to start laughing when she saw I was fine and was just splashing calmly amongst the waves.

I always assumed it was because of my father. He had been sailor, and apparently had been lost out at sea not long after I had been born. Although since mom had no pictures of him I had always assumed that he had just walked out on her. Whenever I asked about him she'd get this sad look in her eyes and would stay quiet for a few minutes as if remembering him. I don't actually know much about my father past what he did. I don't even know what he looked like.

'I can't wait.' We shared a smile. The peaceful moment was ruined by Gabe yelling once more.

'Woman!'

'All right already!' Mom called back, a look of frustration crossing her face. 'I better get him his dip.'

'You do that.' I frowned. She patted my shoulder as she passed me to get to the fridge.

'You'll understand one day.'

'When?' I almost demanded.

'Soon. I promise.'


	4. Mr Bullman has anger issues

**I don't own Percy Jackson**

* * *

><p>The weekend couldn't come sooner.<p>

I had gotten home on the Wednesday so in reality I only had to wait three days. But staying home alone with Gabe made it feel like three years. For the most part I stayed in my room, but any time I had to venture out of my room he'd demand that I'd get him the three hundred thousand things he couldn't be bothered to get himself.

How my mom could put up with him I didn't know.

I lugged my suitcase down the stairs and out to Gabe's Camaro. The slug himself was stood by the buildings front door with his arms crossed, glaring moodily at my mother and me as we passed him. He had put up a pretty big fight about us borrowing his baby. He was sure that we'd wreck the car the moment we got into the front seats.

Of course he didn't win the 'argument'. My mom spent the entire time staring at him, hands on hips and one eyebrow raised. She didn't have to say a word before Gabe caved and gave her the keys. It was a pretty wondrous sight.

I bit back a laugh at Gabe's groan when I purposely slammed the trunk door closed.

'Sophia.' My mom warned as she opened the driver's side door.

I gave her my best 'I'm a little angel' look, earning a snort from her as she climbed into the car. I gave Gabe a cheeky wave before walking round to the passenger side.

'Don't scratch the car kid.' He grunted.

'Who me?' I looked at him scandalized. 'I would never do something so terrible. Bye Gabe.'

I slid into my seat, closing the door obnoxiously slow behind me.

'You shouldn't bait him.' Mom scolded as she pulled away from the curb. Gabe growing smaller and smaller as we drove on.

'He makes it easy.' I shrugged.

* * *

><p>We had gotten to Montauk just before the sun had set. We had spent the drive blasting music on the stereo and singing incredibly off key. Going to Montauk was perhaps one of the few times mom and I could have serious mother daughter bonding time, without completely worrying about money.<p>

We'd been coming to Montauk since I was a baby, and every time we would rent the same cabin. It wasn't much, but for the two of us it was enough. Mom said it had been where she had met my dad, and that it only felt right that we should come back here every summer to remember him.

She had met him one summer after she came here for some peace and quiet, after just burying her uncle. Mom's parents died when she was little in a plane crash, so she had been shipped off to live with her mother's brother.

Apparently they'd had a rocky relationship, him having no clue how to look after a newly orphaned girl. But he tried as much as he could and she grew to care for him. He looked after. Made sure she got a good education, and that she had food and a place to live. But when she had started her senior year of high school her uncle had collapsed at work. He had been diagnosed with cancer a few months previously but hadn't been able to afford treatment.

Mom dropped out of school the moment she found out, willing giving up her dream to go to college to take care of him. When she left school she lost all contact with her friends so that she could make sure everything he needed. She worked when she could to pay the bills, but for the most part barely left his side. It hit her pretty hard when he died.

So having relatives she had no recollection of coming up to her and offering their sympathies had been too much for her. So she had ran.

My father had found her on the beach crying and had comforted her. Mom said he quickly became her best friend, and soon they had fallen in love all within one summer. I had thought the story was a bit farfetched. I didn't think it was possible to fall in love that quickly. But mom had managed it.

Mom said she had been in hysterics when she'd been told the fishing boat he'd been on had gone missing. In her hysterical mind she had burned every single piece of evidence that my father ever existed. Because of that, I don't even know what my father looks like. I assumed I looked like him, considering that I looked nothing like my mom. But it would have been nice to have been able to see his face at least once. I didn't even know his name.

I don't really have any memories of him before left for his fatal fishing trip. But when I was little I used to have this dream of man standing above me while I lay in my crib, smiling down at me. In my dream he always seemed to be glowing as he reached down to me. I liked to pretend that the man was my father. He looked so happy to see me. Something that Gabe never actually expressed.

'Good to be back right?' Mom's voice brought me out my musings.

'You have no idea.' I chuckled.

I unbuckled my seat belt and stepped out of the car, taking a deep breath of sea air. I already felt more at home than I did all year.

'Why don't you head down to the cabin and start clearing up a bit, I'll bring the bags down in a sec.' She threw me the keys without waiting for me to reply.

The cabin was just as I remembered it. A little worn down, not many people actually stayed in this particular cabin so its upkeep wasn't first priority. The green paint was faded, there was a small gap between the kitchen window and the paneling and a floorboard from the small patio was missing.

Inside dust had collected on all surfaces, although the muddy brown sofa and mattresses had been protected by white sheets we'd had the foresight to cover them with last year before we left. A couple cobwebs had appeared in the ceiling corners of a few rooms, and the air felt stale from not having any windows or doors open since last summer.

I set to work quickly, wanting to join mom for our tradition of lighting a camp fire out front first night here. I turned on a few lights, forced open a couple of windows, pulled off the white sheets and folded them down to be stowed away in the hallway closet and dusted down a few surfaces.

Mom joined me a couple minutes into my cleaning spree, and with her help we had managed get the place looking a lot cleaner a lot quicker.

By the time we were done it had been dark for a while. Mom collected a pile of driftwood to make our camp fire. We set up our lawn chairs by the flames and watched as the blue tinted flames turned to smoke in silence.

Moments like these were part of some of my favorite memories.

I remember once, when I was really young, where I used to imagine the faces of beautiful women smiling at me in the waves, waving happily whenever the realized I had noticed them. They always managed to make me feel safe, as though they would personally make sure that I wouldn't get hurt. But as I grew older and realized how silly it was to believe that there were women living in the sea, and then the faces disappeared.

I sometime wondered if there was something wrong with me imagining all these people. The man in my dreams, the women living in the waves, once when I was in third grade when I imagined a man with one eye following me around on the playground. When I mentioned it to a teacher she had just said that I was imagining things, and when I looked again he was gone.

I inhaled another deep breath of salty sea air and relaxed further into my chair. Nothing made me feel better than being near the sea. I always felt stronger, protected, like nothing bad could actually happen to me when I was by the sea but if I wanted to I could take on an entire army and still come out as the last one standing.

'Sophia? Sweetheart? Are you awake?' I was once again brought out of my thoughts by my mother.

'Yeah,' I sighed, looking into my mother's concerned eyes. 'Just thinking.'

'Care to share?' I shrugged, but smiled all the same.

'Just how much I love the sea. How I always feel safest when I'm near the sea, how the sea always manages to makes me feel stronger.' She laughed. 'It's true!'

'I'm not making fun of you, it just.' She paused, a peaceful smile growing on her face as she stared out at the calm waves as they rolled onto the beach. 'It just amazes me how much you're like your father.'

I sat up straighter.

'My father?' Mom hardly ever spoke about him, but whenever she did it was usually just to say how he was such an amazing man, how easy it was to talk to him, how easy it had been to fall in love with him.

'You look and act like him so much it's scary,' she reached over and tucked my hair behind my ear. 'You have the exact same eyes, the same smile, same laugh, same hair, same ears, same nose.'

'Is this your way of telling me I look like a guy?' She shook her head and laughed.

'Similar sense of humor. He had a bit of a beard, nothing extravagant. He considered the sea his home.' She looked down at her feet as she dug them deeper into the sand. 'You both have the most terrifying tempers at times, I mean seriously, I almost had a heart attack during your first temper tantrum.' We both laughed. 'But you both are very protective of the people you love, it's infuriating.'

'Really?' She nodded, smiling fondly at some kind of memory.

'Your father and I were in a bar one night and this man had been staring at me from the moment we walked in. I could tell he was drunk, so I didn't say anything. But when I got up to go to the toilet he tried to make a pass at me, nothing major but I swear your father was going to kill him. I mean I stopped him before he could lay a hand on the man, but still, I had never seen him so angry before.'

'I don't think I'd ever go _that_ far.' She shrugged.

'Maybe not. But once when you were about five years old, I had been called in to see your teacher. You had punched this boy for making fun of one of the other kids. Your teacher had said something like I should pay more attention to you, that I should be teaching you how to act like a proper little and that I should teach you some manners,' She shook her head, smiling once more.

'I had been working long hours that week and bills had begun to pile high, so I was pretty high strung and admittedly began to cry. You got so angry at her you began punching her leg and began yelling at her about she was this 'mean old lady for making mommy cry' and didn't stop yelling at her until I dragged you out of the room.'

'I didn't do that!' I giggled. She nodded enthusiastically at me.

'You did, and you managed to cheer me up at the same time.' Her smile shrunk and her eyes grew sadder. 'I wish you could have met him. He was so happy when I told him I was pregnant. He wanted to buy everything you would need himself, but I was determined that I was going to do it myself. Then you were born, and he had to leave.'

'So he did leave us,' she sighed and looked at me sadly.

'Not by choice. He was forced too. He loved you so much, he refused to put you down for the first hour of you existence.'

'So why did he leave? He could have fought to stay with us.' I insisted.

'It's not that simple.' I nodded and looked down at the sand sadly. She always said that when it came to my father. 'It's getting late, why don't you go and get some sleep. We have a big day tomorrow.'

I nodded and got up from my seat. I paused only to kiss mom on the cheek and went straight up to bed. I climbed into bed thinking over everything I had learnt tonight. It was the most mom had ever talked about my dad, and to be honest. I wasn't sure about what I thought.

Eventually, I fell into a restless sleep.

* * *

><p>I dreamt that night.<p>

* * *

><p><em>I was looking up at a man. He look familiar. He was smiling down at me, a warm golden glow surrounded him. I've had this dream before, only now the man looked a lot clearer.<em>

_His sea green eyes practically shone with happiness, he didn't even flinch when a strand of black hair fell into one of them. I was quickly able to spot the similarities between us, making it very easy to see that we were related._

_Was this man really my father? And if so, was this dream actually a memory? I didn't think it was possible for me to dream up someone so life like, despite the detailed description mom gave me earlier._

_He reached a hand down to me. I could see he mouth moving as he was talking. I couldn't hear what hear what he was saying but I felt peaceful._

_The dream shifted and suddenly I was standing on a beach, a massive storm raging around me. Waves crashed angrily against the sand, salt water spraying everywhere. Giant rain drops thundered down from the heavens as lightning flashed overhead. Sometimes striking the surface of the sea._

_It was almost as though sea and sky were fighting each other._

_I spun in a circle, trying to make sense of my dream. I tried calling out, but it was like my mouth was glued shut._

_A shape began to form from the waves, rushing towards the dark sand. I squinted, trying to see through the heavy rain to what it was but it was only as it ran past me that I was able to work out what it was._

_A black horse, a stallion, ran down the beach undisturbed by the strom, eyes fixed firmly on a spot ahead of it. Suddenly, a flash of light lit up the beach as it struck down at the sand. I was blinded for a second, but when I got my sight back an eagle was hovering in the exact spot the lightning struck. Glaring angrily at the stallion as it grew closer and closer to him._

_My heart started beating faster as the eagle shot up into the air, letting the stallion ran right underneath it._

_Both stallion and eagle both turned and stopped. Their eyes locked on each other. The stallion's breaths appearing in front of him in bursts of white clouds. It was as if time had slowed down._

_Then, almost as though a cord had snapped, the two shot forward at impossible speed. I watched on in horror as the two looked as though they were about to collide. At the last second, the eagle swooped slightly, beak wide open, eyes fixed intently on the horse's throat._

_No!_

* * *

><p>I shot up in bed, heart pounding, my hair clinging to my sweaty skin. I scanned the room, eyes wide as I looked for what had woken me.<p>

Thunder boomed outside startling me for a second, before making laugh when I realized that my subconscious had somehow managed to weave the storm going on outside into my dream.

I lay back down, but quickly decided that I wouldn't be falling asleep any time soon. I looked over at the alarm clock on my bed side, 12:46. I sighed and kicked my sheets off of me, deciding that while I was up I might as well go and get a glass of water.

I stood by the sink looking out the window, watching the storm play on. The sea was dark gray, giant waves thrashed onto the sand but no matter how big the waves got the never came anywhere near the cabin. Thunder boomed overhead, and I mentally counted the seconds down for the flash of lightning. But it ever came.

I frowned. Wasn't lightning meant to follow thunder?

I brushed the thought aside and took a sip of my water, debating on going back up to bed or just grabbing a blanket and curling up on the couch.

_BANG! BANG! BANG!_

I dropped my cup into the sink, the glass shattering against the cold metal. I stared into the dark hallway, I had decided not to turn on the lights when I came downstairs not wanting to wake my mom up. Now I was regretting that.

_BANG! BANG! BANG! _

I ran for the kitchen door and poked my head out into the hallway.

I turned towards the stairs as the lights came on. My mom had woken up and was hurrying down the stairs, looking alarmed at the sudden noise.

'Sophia? What's going on?'

'I don't know, I came down for a drink and-'

_BANG! BANG! BANG!_

'SALLY!' Grover? What was he doing here? 'SALLY! You need to open the door, now!'

Mom didn't even hesitate when she rushed to the door and threw it open.

'What's going on?' Mom's voice dropped to the point where I was struggling to hear what was being said.

'We need to leave now, she's being tracked.' Mom turned to me, face pale and eyes frantic as she tried to coral me outside.

'Sophia go to the car.'

'Mom? What's going on why-?'

'No time for questions, go to the car!' She ran passed me into the sitting room, leaving me in the hallway staring blankly after her.

'Sophia-'

'Mom, just tell me what's going on?' I ignored Grover and tried to get some kind of answer from my mom.

'Sophia do as I say and get to the car!' I gaped at her. While sometimes she did get angry at me, she had never actually shouted.

When I didn't respond she huffed and grabbed me by the shoulder and dragged me out the door, past a wide eyed Grover and towards Gabe's Camaro. She left me by the door to the back seats and jumped into the driver's seat. My bare feet (thanks to my mom not giving me time to grab a pair of shoes) were now covered with wet sand, and brushed uncomfortably against the cars carpets as I reluctantly climbed into the back seat. Silently wishing I had gone back to bed instead of getting that glass of water.

Grover jumped into the car behind me before, not giving me the chance to shut the door. Mom started the car and sped down the road the moment he shut the door behind him. He smiled sheepishly at me, wet curly hair falling in front of his eyes reminding me weirdly of a wet dog. Now that I was actually next to him I was able to get a proper look at him.

He looked tired, and frightened, as though something had been keeping from sleeping. Brown eyes kept flashing out the back window, as if looking out for something. He was panting pretty loudly as if he had just run a marathon, despite his obvious exhaustion.

Thanks to the torrential rain he was soaked completely, his jacket having not provided a proper shield against the almost terrifying weather. By chance, my eyes happened to glance downward, and in my surprise I practically threw myself backwards against the door.

'What the hell are those?' I almost screamed.

'Sophia! Language!' Leave to my mom to scold me on my language in the middle of kidnapping me.

'Mom trust me I'm perfectly justified in saying that, be glad I didn't say anything worse.'

I stared wide eyed at were my friend's _human _legs should be. Instead there was a pair of very hairy, very animal legs and were his feet should be, were hooves.

'They're my legs,' Grover answered, twitching nervously.

'You have donkey legs?' I was finding it very difficult to look away from his brown, furry legs for an extended period of time.

'No. Goat legs.' My eyes shot up to his. He was looking at me worriedly.

'How is that better?' I was almost shrieking at this point.

'Sophia!' Mom scolded for what felt like the hundredth time that night.

'How are you so calm about this?'

'One of us has to be!'

'How is screaming at me being calm?'

'I'm not screaming!'

'You just screamed at me!'

'Girls!' Grover yelled, interrupting us. 'We have more important things to worry about than whose screaming at who!'

'And that is what exactly?' I asked, turning as much as I could towards him, a hand on my hip.

'Now's not a good time to say,' Mom answered.

'You're basically kidnapping me you might as well be kind and tell me why.'

'We're not kidnapping you.' Mom sighed.

'We're helping you.' I raised an eyebrow at Grover.

'By making me get into the car against my will, then showing me your weird donkey legs-'

'Goat. Their goat legs!' Grover huffed, starting to look annoyed.

'What's it matter?' I yelled.

'It matters because I'm a satyr!'

The car grew silent, you could have heard a pin drop. Grover's eyes widened, only just realizing what he said. His mouth opened and closed silently, struggling to form any kind of sentence.

'What?' I whispered, unable to make my voice any louder.

'I'm a satyr.' He stated.

'No,' I shook my head. 'No not possible.'

'It's true.' I kept shaking my head, refusing to believe him.

'No, it's not. Satyr's are myths.'

'Sophia just look at my legs.'

'They're fake! They have to be.' I started poking his legs with my finger, trying to find where his prosthetics started.

'No they're not!' He grabbed my wrist and forced me to look at him. 'Sophia I am a satyr. Have been since I was born.'

'How's that possible?' I asked. Brow furrowing as I tried to make sense of this.

'It'll all be explained to you once we get to the camp.' He said softly

'What camp?' I pressed, looking for at least one answer that made sense.

'I can't say.' I groaned.

'What _can_ you say?' I insisted, trying to push down my annoyance.

'That you can trust me.' I scoffed.

'Really? After lying to my face repeatedly about Mrs. Dodds and making me think that I was crazy?' His eyes widened.

'Wha-?'

'I heard you with Mr. Brunner, you were talking about fates, Mrs. Dodds and this camp,' He paled. 'And apparently I'm in some kind of danger. If this is true, don't you think I deserve some real answers?'

'Sophia I know this is hard, but please listen to me. It's too dangerous right now to explain anything to you right now.' I groaned again, my frustration growing quickly by the second.

'But why is it dangerous? None of this is making any sense.'

'Because right now you're being hunted.' I laughed in disbelief.

'You're making me sound like some kind of animal. Is that what the big secret is? Are you going to tell me that I'm actually a satyr once we reach this "camp" of yours?'

'Sophia enough!' Mom ordered, eyes flashing dangerously at me in the rearview mirror.

'No. I want to know.' I looked at Grover, a cruel smirk tugging at the corner of my mouth. 'I'll play along, what's hunting me?'

At that moment an earth shattering roar sounding. I sat up ramrod straight, looking out into the darkness for the source of the roar. Mom's hands tightened on the steering wheel as she urged the car to go faster. Grover looked out the back window, shaking slightly and was paler than I had ever seen him as he stared out at the road.

'You want to know what's hunting you.' He asked, swallowing loudly. 'That. That's what's hunting you.'

I followed his line of sight, and what I saw almost made me scream.

The monster, despite the evident speed he was travelling at he was quite a long way from us. However his red eyes still managed to shine through the darkness and look directly at us. He had just passed under a street lamp when I had looked up so I managed to get a good look at him before the darkness hid him from sight once more.

Chasing us, looking as though he had just been woken up from a nap and wearing only a pair of boxers, was the Minotaur.

And he looked raging mad.

* * *

><p>The Minotaur came barreling down the road at an impressive speed. Despite how fast the car was going, he was quickly catching up to us.<p>

'This isn't real. It's just a dream. This isn't real. It's just a dream.' I chanted, hopping that if I said it enough I would wake up in my bed back in Montauk.

'You can keep saying that but it's not going to change anything.' Grover stated, switching between looking at the Minotaur to looking at the road ahead.

'Well I can hope.' I spat out. Glaring at him. 'Why is he hunting me?'

'Because,' he paused and looked at his lap.

'Because of your father,' Mom spoke up quietly.

'What's he got to do with this?'

'Please, we need to wait till we get to the camp then I'll answer any question you have.'

'For the last time what camp?'

The car jerked to the left suddenly, almost taking us off of the road.

'No! A few more miles. Just a little further.' I looked at my mom, terrified of what I would see if I looked out the back window.

She had moved forward in her seat and was holding onto the steering wheel so tightly, I was amazed it didn't break in half. The rain hadn't let up, and instead had gotten heavier. We could barely see the road in front of us.

The car jerked to the side again causing me and Grover to go hurtling into the door.

'Why aren't you two wearing seat belts?' Mom yelled at us.

'We were a bit preoccupied!' I yelled back, climbing off of Grover and moving back to my seat. Pulling the seat belt over me as quickly as I could.

Time slowed down. I was able to catch a glimpse of the monsters horns in the rear-view mirror before the car flipped through the air, and rolled off of the road. The car must have rolled a hundred times before settling roof down in a ditch.

I groaned in pain when the world finally stilled, wincing as something sticky rolled into my eye. Raising a hand to wipe it away, I groaned again when I realized it was blood.

'Sophia? Grover? Are you okay?' I closed my eyes in pain, my mother's voice sounding louder than usual.

'I'm good!' Grover groaned as he wiggled himself out of his seat belt, falling head first onto the roof of the car.

'Sophia?'

'Been better.' I sighed, trying to keep my mom from panicking.

'We need to move.' Grover ground out, pulling from my confines as mom flopped out of her seat.

'Great idea.'

'You know, the sarcasm really isn't helping us right now.' He growled, bringing his knees up to his chest before forcing his fee-hooves through the window closet to him.

'It's how I cope.' I said shrugging. Wincing as the sound of glass smashing reached my ears.

'C'mon hurry.' Grover urged as he crawled out the broken window.

He reached arm into the car to help me out, but ended up almost dragging me when I whimpered in pain as glass cut into my skin.

He turned back to help my mom out when I was finally back on my feet again, leaving to quickly take in my surroundings and tried to work out where we were. We were surrounded by trees that in the darkness seemed to lead nowhere. I could only just make out the hill that lay just beyond the trees, a single pine tree resting at the peak like some kind of weird crown. There were a few street lights leading down the road that gave us a little bit of light, but at that moment in my opinion gave us a bit too much light.

'Guys, we've got company.' Grover looked up from helping my mom out of the car and whimpered.

At the bottom of the road, with arms his arms stretched out as if expecting us to run into them for a hug, was the Minotaur. It was unnerving the way he just stared at us, as if he was waiting for someone to challenge him.

'Run.' I heard Grover say, but I couldn't move. The Minotaur's' red eyes stared directly into mine.

'Sophia, run!' Mom pulled me away from my staring contest with the beast and pushed me ahead of her, where Grover was waiting to drag me through the trees.

My heart beat loudly in my ears, blocking out every other sound as we barreled through the dark. I was vaguely aware of the monster ripping up a few trees in an attempt to get to us. But at that moment I didn't care. I just ran. The rain came down harder than ever, making it very difficult to see and run as we slipped through the mud and almost crashed right into the trees.

I followed Grover through the trees, trusting him to lead us to safety. I looked back a few times to make sure mom was still behind us, and almost froze in fear each time as I realized the Minotaur was very close to.

'Grover!' I screamed, as mom and I were almost knocked off of our feet.

'We're almost there, c'mon!' He urged again, breathing heavily as we climbed the hill.

I almost sighed in relief as we neared the top of the hill, but ended up screaming as my mom pushed me to the ground just before she was whipped up into the air by a massive, beefy hand.

'Mom!' I screamed, watching in horror as she was lifted into the air by the Minotaur who looked at her a cruel curiosity.

I tried to run to her, to help her, but an arm wrapped itself securely around my waist and tried to lead me up the hill.

'No! Mom!' I struggled against Grover as my mom was slowly being crushed to death.

'Get to – house' Mom gasped, eyes bulging as she tried fighting against the monsters grip. 'Get – safety – house'

She gasped suddenly and burst into a flash of golden light, temporarily blinding us. When I got my sight back all I saw was the Minotaur staring at his empty hands in confusion. My mother was gone.

'NO!' I screamed, dragging the monsters attention back to me and Grover.

'Sophia, we need to –' He cut off when I elbowed him in the stomach, making him release his grip on me.

Pulling myself out of his arms I ran straight towards the Minotaur. Anger pulsing hotly through my veins. I couldn't see or think straight. All I saw was the monster who killed my mom.

I ducked through the gap between his legs before he even realized what was going on, and turned to face him. Chest heaving as adrenaline coursed through me. I took a few steps back, daring him to follow me.

'Sophia! Get back here!' Grover yelled, waving his arms like a madman trying to hail an airplane.

I didn't answer him, concentrating solely on the monster in front of me. He followed me with his eyes, grunting angrily when I smiled at him.

'You want me big guy?' I taunted, tilting my head as I carried on moving backwards slowly. The Minotaur huffed and stomped his feet, preparing to charge. 'Then come get me.'

I spun around abruptly and sprinted as fast as I could back down the hill. The Minotaur let out an earth shattering roar and charged after me, feet pounding against the muddy floor.

The rain was beginning to let up somewhat, but still fell hot and fast around me and thunder still echoed overhead. I was soaked to the bone, making it virtually impossible to run. My bare feet squelched uncomfortably in the mud and I was vaguely aware of a sharp shooting pain in my feet from where I had stepped in glass earlier on.

I heard the Minotaur stumble behind me and panicked slightly, what if he fell onto me? I chanced a glance behind and quickly picked up my pace when I saw that the Minotaur had changed tactics and was now running on all fours and was picking up speed a lot more quicker than I was comfortable with.

Turning back around my eyes widened for a second when I realized I was running straight towards a tree. But then I got an idea and instead of changing course, I picked up my pace and carried on towards the tree.

When I was inches away from running into the tree I turned suddenly, tripped over a tree root and face planted the floor. I wiped the mud from my eyes in disgust and pushed myself up onto my knees. The Minotaur roared in anger behind me, and a tree groaned in protest.

I turned and couldn't help but laugh darkly at the sight of the Minotaur with his horn stuck in a tree. He roared furiously hearing me laugh and tried pulling himself free but the tree wouldn't let him go.

I got to my feet shakily, my head feeling as though someone shoved a white hot poker into my brain. The Minotaur's roars grew louder and louder as he continued to struggle against the tree. He shook his head violently when the tree would let up on its hold on him, then, with a sickening snap his horn broke. The monster fell backwards from the force of the horn breaking and fell to the ground with a thump. He lay still in a daze.

I looked between the broken horn, still lodged in the tree, and the monster on the ground. In a split second decision I rushed for the horn, very much aware of the dazed monster behind me. I fought with the horn trying to pull it out of the trunk, but it held fast.

The Minotaur grumbled and snorted as he started to come to. Still trying to pull the horn from the tree, I turned and watched as the monster realized that I was right in front of him. Snot and spit flew everywhere as he roared, angry that I had managed to trick him.

Beginning to really panic now, I put one foot on the trunk and summoned whatever strength I had left and pulled. The horn came free from the tree abruptly just as the Minotaur staggered to his feet, I punched myself in the stomach at the sudden release and fell to the monsters feet. Horn falling out of my hand.

Brain working in overdrive, I quickly rolled out of the way just as the monster brought his giant fists down heavily, splattering mud in every direction. My heart clenched in fear as I realized that if I hadn't moved in time, I would have been killed instantly.

Scooping the horn up into my hands, I shot to my feet and turned to face the Minotaur one last time. This time it didn't even pause, tired of playing he ran at me, arms reaching out to grab me.

Without thinking, I ducked around his arms and reached upwards. Thrusting the horn into his chest. I stepped away from him as he roared in pain, looking down at the horn sticking out of his chest in surprise as if he couldn't believe that a twelve year old had managed to hurt him.

He looked me dead in the eye and stumbled forward, reaching out to me as if hoping to inflict some kind of damage but before he could, he burst into a cloud of golden dust.

My knees buckled in relief and I fell to the ground. No longer caring about the mud that most likely covered me.

'Sophia!' I gasped as I was suddenly pulled to my feet, causing me to stumble dizzily. Unable to find my footing.

'Hey Grover.' I smiled weakly.

'Why couldn't you listen to me?' He sighed, as he more or less began dragging me back up the hill.

'M' tired.' I moaned, leaning closer to him.

'You need to keep awake a little longer.' He encouraged, picking up speed as we passed the pine tree crowning the hill.

I moaned at not being allowed any sleep but trudged on, struggling to keep my eyes open.

Through bleary eyes, I was able to see that we were approaching a pretty big house. It looked about three stories tall, painted blue with white framework around the windows. Despite how late it was, lights shone through one of the windows on the ground floor. I was just able to see at least two shadows of whoever was awake, and judging by their postures they seemed to be in the middle of a pretty heated conversation.

As we got closer my legs felt heavier, and it was beginning to get harder to keep upright. I felt as though a fog had crept into my head, and now I could barely see or hear anything. I heard Grover call out, but his words sounded muffled. Like someone had stuffed a sock into his mouth.

A door was thrown open as Grover lifted me up onto the patio that circled the house. I moaned in pain at the sudden burst of light and buried my head into Grover's shoulder.

'What happened?' I heard a familiar voice ask. My head felt too heavy to turn to see who it was.

I didn't hear the response as another set of arms pulled me away from Grover, and carried me into the house. The bright lights making my already excruciating headache ten time worse.

The last thing I saw before I finally fell unconscious was a pair of bright blue eyes, staring down at me in concern.


	5. I meet an old horse

**I don't own Percy Jackson**

* * *

><p>For a long time, it was dark. I don't know how long I was unconscious for, but every so often I would wake up for a few minutes at a time. Whenever I did wake up however, I was never actually alone. It seemed like someone was always there in the room with me. However I didn't actually know where I was.<p>

The first time I woke up I ended up having a very short staring contest with this blonde surfer dude, who did nothing but stand in the corner of the room with his arms crossed, just staring at me. I figured that whoever was keeping me here had me on some kind of weird drug, because before I fell back asleep I was almost certain that I saw an eye on the man's cheek blink at me.

The second time I woke, there was a boy, around my age standing over me. Tanned, blonde haired and blue eyes wearing blue hospital scrubs, he seemed to almost glow from the sun light poking through the open window. He had been looking at the cut on my forehead, and for a moment looked surprised to see that I was awake.

I could see his mouth moving, as if he was trying to say something to me but it felt like I had cotton wool stuffed in my ears so I couldn't actually make out what he was saying. In the end I fell back asleep, too tired to try and decipher what he said to me.

The third time I woke up, I was being spoon fed something gold-ish in color that tasted oddly like buttered popcorn. I followed the hand hoping to see the blonde boy from before, but instead found a girl with blonde hair that fell in princess curls down to her shoulders and stormy gray eyes. She looked way to excited to see that I was awake, and not a second after I opened my eyes she started firing questions at me so fast that it actually took my brain a second to catch up with her.

'What's been stolen? What's gonna happen during the solstice? What's going on? Do you know who's behind this? We're running out of time!'

I tried telling her that I had no idea what she was talking about, but mouth refused to move. Eventually exhaustion took over and I fell asleep once more.

The next time I woke up I had been moved outside, and had been placed in a rocking chair facing a hill crowned by a single pine tree. I was confused for a few seconds, unable to figure out where I was, but then, almost as though someone had dumped a bucket of cold water on me, I came to the terrifying realization that nothing had been a dream. My mother, the Minotaur, the crash, Grover's weird legs. It had all been real.

I bit my lip as I tried rationalizing what happened that night. I wasn't sure how long I had been out of it, so for all I knew it could have happened last night. The Minotaur, Grover's legs, those I had to have imagined. Mom and I must have crashed on the way to Montauk, and in the confusion my mind must have dreamt everything up in an attempt to ease the pain. But then, that didn't explain how I got here. Wherever here was.

Looking down I finally noticed that someone had changed me out of my ruined superman pajamas and into a pair of clean, pale blue cotton ones and a pair of white fluffy slippers to protect my feet. A woolen blanket had been draped across my lap which I assumed was to keep me comfortable, now however I felt like I was being suffocated in heat.

I threw the blanked off of me and tried standing up, only to be pushed back into the chair almost instantly by a hand pushing down on my shoulder.

'Oh no you don't,' a familiar voice chuckled. 'You're meant to be resting.'

'Grover!' I smiled, wincing at how sore my throat felt from not having a drink in a while. He didn't smile back, but his grip on my shoulder tightened. 'What's wrong?'

'You were hurt. I was meant to protect you and your mom. I failed.'

He looked so upset and so pathetic that anything I still held against him from before was instantly washed away.

'Grover I'm fine.' I rubbed his arm in what I hopped was a comforting manner, but he just shrugged me off. Moving to lean up against the railing in front of me. Playing with the lid of the box he held nervously.

'But you weren't.' He protested weakly, not looking up from the box. 'You've been asleep for almost two days. Will said you had a concussion, glass stuck in your feet and knees and a pretty bad head wound.'

'Grover, look at me.' He dragged his eyes up from the box and looked at me pitifully with his big brown eyes. 'I. Am. Fine. My throat hurts, but otherwise I'm fine.'

He laughed and nodded to the side table next to me. On it was an ice cold glass of what looked like apple juice, a little umbrella sticking out of the top. I reached for it gratefully and downed it in one breathe. Somehow it tasted exactly like my mom's blue chocolate chip cookies, I could almost feel the chocolate chips melting on my tongue. I took a big gulp of air when I put down the glass, looking at Grover in amusement as he watched me with big eyes.

'Thanks.' He nodded, a small smile growing on his lips. 'By the way, who's Will?'

'What?' He looked at me blankly.

'You said someone called Will told you I had a concussion or something.'

'Will is the medic assigned to you.' I nodded, not really knowing what else to say. 'Sophia. I really am Sorry about your mom.'

'Grover, it's not your fault. It was just a crash. What?' I asked when he looked at me worriedly.

'Is that what you think it was?'

'What else could it be?' He sighed and looked at me worriedly.

'Sophia what do you remember from that night?'

'I remember the car rolling into a ditch and then you dragging me down that hill.'

'You're lying.' He stated, eyes peering at me intently.

'No I'm not.'

'Sophia you're my best friend. I know when you're lying. Now tell me, what do you remember?' He looked so serious that it was starting to worry me. I've known him for a year, and I've never seen him look so serious. I've always known him to try and lighten any serious situation with some lame joke or other.

'Grover it was probably just a dream, I –'

'I don't care tell me.' I sighed and picked at a loose thread on my pajamas.

'I remember you coming to our cabin, you and mom forcing me into the car. Then being run off of the road by the Minotaur.' I paused, expecting Grover to snort or something in disbelief. When he didn't I continued.

'I remember you and mom helping me through the woods, we had just gotten to the top of the hill when the Minotaur grabbed mom and killed her.' Despite trying to stop them, a few tears escaped. 'I was so horrible to her and I didn't get to say sorry.'

I felt arms wrap around me as I was pulled to someone's chest.

'I'm so sorry.' Grover murmured, rubbing my back. 'I should have protected her.'

I shook my head and buried my head into his chest, thankful for the comfort.

'Not your fault.' My voice was muffled by his shirt, but I assumed he heard me when he pulled back suddenly and looked at me in disbelief.

'I'm your protector, I was meant to look after you to. Get you to the camp safely, and I couldn't even do that!'

'What do you mean protector?'

'It's my duty as a satyr to protect the half-blood assigned to me.'

'Sat- what?' I asked. I was starting to think he was going crazy.

'Look at me!' He waved his arms up and down, indicating his body. 'I'm not human!'

I finally tore my eyes from his face and looked down at his legs. I pushed myself back into my chair as far as I could, forgetting it was a rocking chair so I ended up almost flying out of it when I swung forward suddenly.

Just as they had been two nights ago, just as they had been in what I had thought was my dream, were goat's legs where his human legs should have been.

'Grover what's going on? Why do you look like that? There is no way any of this is real.' I could feel myself becoming hysterical.

'You're smart Sophia. You know why I look like this, you just don't want to admit it.' He said soothingly, crouching in front of me. 'As to what's going on, I'm not the best person to talk to you about that.'

'Who is?' I tried staying strong, but couldn't help a bit of fear leaking through my persona.

'I'll take you to him once you've calmed down. Until then,' He reached for the box he had dropped on the ground during my little break down, and handed it to me. 'Here.'

I opened the box with a shaky hand and sucked in a breath at what I found. Any hope I had that this was all some big nightmare vanished when I saw the broken horn in the box. I pulled it out and rolled it between my hands. Images of what happened that night flashed before my eyes.

'It can't be real.' I whispered.

'It is, and always has been.' Grover replied, looking at me gently.

'Where are we?' I asked after a few moments of silence.

'Camp Half Blood. It a safe haven for people like you.'

'People like me?'

'Half-Blood's. Chiron will explain everything to you later.'

'Chiron?' I scrunched my eyebrows in confusion.

'Again, everything will be explained later.'

'What about the safe haven thing?'

'Half-Bloods like you are constantly in danger in the outside world, monsters like the Minotaur hunt half-bloods. Sometimes for fun, sometimes for food. It depends on their mood and the half-blood.'

'Oh.' I didn't know what else to say.

'Let's get you upstairs so you can change, then I'll take you to Chiron.' I nodded, still processing this new information.

Grover sighed and came up beside me, reaching a hand under my arm pit and lifted me to my feet. I let the box fall to the ground, the Minotaur's horn clutched tightly in my hand. It's course texture giving me a weird sense of reassurance. Now that the Minotaur was gone that meant there was one less monster out there right?

Grover moved his hand to grip my upper arm and guided me through the house and up the stairs. I knew I was actually capable of walking by myself, but the extra help brought me a sense of comfort.

Grover pushed open a white door and guided me into the room I assumed I had spent the last two days. Now that I was fully conscious I was able to actually get a bet look at the place. It was very simple, green walls, white sheets on the single bed that been pushed to lay opposite a chest of drawers. The window opposite the door had been pushed open, letting a gentle breeze cool the room down in the clammy summer heat.

'One of our campers leant you those to borrow for the time being.' He indicated the pile of neatly folded clothes that had been placed at the foot of the bed. 'Once you're up and running again we'll get you some clothes of your own.'

'Grover?' He paused by the door, having been about to leave to give me some privacy to change. 'How many of those things – monsters – are there? Like the Minotaur I mean.'

'Thousands, it would be impossible to count them all.'

'At least now the Minotaur's gone there's one less monster to deal with.' I smiled, but it dropped as quickly as it appeared. Grover looked at me grimly.

'It's not that easy.

'What do you mean?'

'No matter how you kill them, monsters will always reform. You can blow them up and then sprinkle the dust at the four corners of the world, but they will still reform.' He watched me unblinking, as if gauging my reaction.

'How long until they-' I trailed off, finding I couldn't finish my sentence.

'An hour, a day, if you're lucky a year. If you're really lucky a hundred years.' I nodded, once again unable to form any words. 'Look, try not to think about it too much. Get dressed, and I'll meet you downstairs okay?'

He left the room before I could respond, shutting the door softly behind him. I sat down heavily on the bed and stared stonily down at the wooden floor. The horn in my hands feeling ten times heavier.

The world suddenly got a lot more complicated.

* * *

><p>I left the bedroom door open as I left, figuring that someone would be by soon to collect the pajamas I had left folded on the bed. I still kept hold of the Minotaur's horn, fearing that if I lt go it would just disappear and my only proof that there were mythological monsters running about in this world would just disappear.<p>

My footsteps echoed through the hallway as I made it to the stairs. The place was nice enough, red carpet that looked like it had once been fairly expensive but now looked worn down from people constantly walking by; dark paneled walls were decorated with various paintings of beaches, fields and spectacular views of mountains and cities. Brightly coloured flowers placed in vases and jars were resting on the odd end table.

I hadn't realized it when Grover led me up here earlier, but the hallway was really long. I must have been placed in the room furthest from the front of the house, I had to go around one or two corners just to find the stairs. I even got lost once.

As promised, Grover had been waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs. He was either bored or anxious as he kept hopping from one foo-hoof (sorry) to the other in a weird dance. Either that or he _really_ needed the bathroom.

He looked relieved when he saw coming down the stairs, and practically ripped my arm off as he pulled out of the house and back onto the patio and around the side of the house.

'Grover, relax will you!' He slowed down slightly and threw me an apologetic glance over his shoulder.

'Sorry! But Chiron really wants to talk to you before sending you over to the infirmary to get you checked out. Just to be sure.' He added hastily when he how annoyed I looked.

'So you decide to drag me out of the house because of that?' He shrugged and looked sheepish, but didn't say anything more.

He pulled me around a final corner and let go of my arm, quickly moving to stand in front of a wooden table, his hands folded behind his back, and began whispering to the two people sat facing him.

One was wearing this ridiculous purple, leopard print t-shirt with bright yellow joggers and purple running shoes. Which was weird cos the guy looked like he had never ran a mile in his life. The man had what looked like the beginnings of a beer belly, making him look somewhat like an alcoholic cherub. A bright red nose, flushed cheeks and bloodshot purple eyes that stared directly into a can of diet coke. He didn't seem all that impressed with whatever he saw.

The second person however was very familiar. I was pretty sure that I'd be able to spot his frayed tweed jacket anywhere. He smiled brightly at me when he caught my stunned expression.

'Mr Brunner?' I gasped, wondering what my aging Latin teacher was doing here.

'It's good see you awake and well Sophia. Why don't you join us?' He gestured to the only other chair available, and continued smiling calmly as if meeting me in the middle of nowhere was an everyday thing.

I stayed standing.

'Mr. Brunner what're you doing here?' I paused. 'Actually where is here?'

'All will be explained my dear girl, now please sit and ease an old man's heart. You've been unconscious for the past two days, and even with our medicine and skilled healers I still feel it would be best if you took it easy for a little while longer.'

Grudgingly I sat down, eyes darting between the two men. In this time Grover had moved to stand behind the unknown man and was playing with the edge of his shirt nervously.

'Would you like something to drink?' Mr. Brunner asked, still smiling gently at me.

'I wouldn't mind some of that stuff I had before.' I shrugged, my mouth watering at the memory of my mom's chocolate chip cookies. He chuckled.

'I thought you might. Unfortunately Nectar has a massive habit of incinerating half-bloods from the inside out if consumed in great amounts.' I balked. 'Not to worry dear, our medics are perfectly aware of the maximum amount you are able to consume. Mortals however cannot share this luxury, should they consume Nectar or even Ambrosia for that matter they will instantly die a painful death. Usually by spontaneous combustion.'

He said that as though he was just talking about the weather. I blinked, unsure what to say next.

'For God's sake, stop skirting around the subject and just tell her. She'll find out eventually.' I jumped in surprise, not really expecting the other man to say anything. He seemed far more interested in staring into his can of diet coke.

'Now, now Mr. D, rushing will not bring about any positive results.' Mr. Brunner raised a hand, just like he used to do at Yancy when he called for quiet.

'At this rate we won't get any results.' Mr. D's purple eyes stared pointedly at Mr. Brunner.

From the corner of my eye I noticed Grover picking up a discarded diet coke can and bite into it, tearing it in half as easily as you would with bread. I decided I was better off not questioning it.

'I was getting to it, I didn't want to confuse the girl more than she already is.' Mr. D scoffed.

'I'm sure Sophie Jonson is a big girl and can handle the news.'

'It's actually Sophia Jackson.' I was ignored.

'Mr. D,' Mr. Brunner's voice took on a dangerous tone and his eyes narrowed. 'Would you like me to talk to your father about extending your sentence?'

Mr. D didn't reply and instead went back to staring into his can glumly.

'That's what I thought.' Mr. Brunner turned back to me, all evidence of anger vanishing. 'Now, Sophia. I have no doubt you are wondering what's going on. But being the bright girl that you are I'm sure you already have some ideas.'

The hand holding my horn tightened.

'Just a little bit.'

'Well in that case I'm just going to say it. Greek mythology is real.' I sucked in a breath. 'Everything I have ever taught you exists, and has done for thousands of years. And you my dear girl, are a part of it.'

'Why?'

'Why what?' He blinked, looking slightly unsure.

'Why am I part of it? I know Grover mentioned something about being a half-blood, but I don't understand what that means.'

'A half-blood, is just a different name for Demigod.'

'A Demigod?' Chiron nodded. 'Like Hercules and Perseus?' He nodded again. 'Me?'

'Holy Hera.' Mr. D complained, rolling his eyes as he looked up again. 'I thought you said she was smart?'

'I did, and she is. This is a lot of information to process -'

'No kidding.' I interrupted, throwing the Minotaur horn down onto the table and pointed to it. 'I've just been told that monsters and demigods exist, and I'm going to take a guess that gods do as well. And you seem to think I'm going accept this and play along with whatever joke you guys are playing on me. Last I checked those kind of things are myths, so this is either some weird messed up dream or this is a prank and I've just been way too gullible to realize.'

Thunder boomed overhead. Mr. Brunner and Grover looked up worriedly, a piece of metal hanging out of Grover's mouth. Mr. D rolled his eyes.

'Be careful who you call myths girl. My father is easily angered.'

'You're father? Who are you exactly?' I raised my eyebrows, wandering what rubbish he was going to try and feed me.

He sat up straight, purple eyes blazing. His entire body seemed to pulse with this aura that screamed power, it made me melt and become a part of my chair.

'My name is Dionysus, God of Wine and Madness.' He said it with so much authority that I couldn't help but believe him. 'And you _Sophie Jonson _would do well to remember that insulting me will not end well.'

I was too scared to tell him he got my name wrong again, but that didn't seem to stop my mouth from getting me into more trouble.

'If you're a god why're you here?' It took a second for my brain to catch up with what I said, when it did I almost high-tailed it out of here when I saw the look he gave me.

Grover was so surprised he dropped the diet coke can he was nibbling on and it dropped to the floor with a loud clatter. Mr. D – Dionysus – whoever he was stood up abruptly, his chair falling to the floor. He opened his mouth to speak but Mr. Brunner held up a hand to stop him.

'Mr. D, please allow me.' He sat back down grumbling, taking a long drink of his diet coke. Mr. Brunner turned in his wheel chair to face me. 'Sophia, as Mr. D so kindly pointed out for us, it would be best that you take care of what you say from now on. Gods are easily angered, and there may not be someone around to calm them down if you say something insulting.'

'But _how_ are they real?' I insisted, starting to get a little worked up.

'You could just as well ask how you are real. My dear, if we start questioning our existence we may go mad.' He looked at me sadly and tried giving me an encouraging smile. 'If it helps, some people have fainted after being told the truth.'

It didn't help.

'But what's your part in all this? Last I checked you were just a Latin teacher.'

'Just show her Chiron, she'll find out soon anyway.' Mr. D snorted, popping open another can.

'Chiron?' I looked at Mr. Brunner in confusion. Chiron had been one of my favorite figures in Greek mythology, but wasn't he meant to be a centaur?

'I'm afraid I haven't been too truthful with you this past year. You see, whilst teaching outside the camp I operate under various aliases. You know me as Mr. Brunner, here, I am known as Chiron.'

He pushed up from his wheelchair and grew to full height. Growing a lot taller than any man I ever met, his head brushed the roof of the patio. I started breathing heavily when I realized why. From the waist down, he had the body of a white stallion. His tail flicked nervously as he smiled down at me.

'Are you okay?' I didn't answer Grover, I just continued to look up at my old teacher with wide eyes. 'Sophia?'

I fainted.


	6. It all blows up in my face

**I don't own Percy Jackson**

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><p>After I had come to and had stopped freaking out about the fact that my mild mannered Latin teacher, was in fact a centuries old centaur known for training heroes from Greek myths, I was invited to join Mr. Brunner – sorry, it's still a bit weird to call him Chiron – and Mr. D in a game of Pinochle. Despite my insistence that I had no idea how to play.<p>

After being taught the very basics of the game and Mr. Bru – Chiron, was nestled back in his wheelchair that I was told was magically enhanced to hide the lower half of his body, I was kindly told about this camp of theirs.

'This is a camp that serves to protect and train demigods of all ages, although unfortunately not many survive to adulthood for various reasons, although the main cause is due to monster attacks.' Chiron explained casually.

'Where are we exactly?'

'Long Island at the moment.' He answered.

'Didn't read the card I gave you?' Grover cut in, munching on a new diet coke can.

'Yeah but I thought it was for some vacation home or something.' I trailed off looking down at my lap. My head snapped up as I suddenly realised what Chiron just said. 'What do you mean at the moment?'

'The camp relocates when the Gods do. Their home is where ever Western Civilisation is strongest, which at the moment is America. You're move.'

I passed and let Mr. D take the next bid, wanting to get out of the game as quickly as possible. Trying to understand the rules of the game was making my head hurt.

'Chiron I believe I've won this round.' Mr. D chuckled, taking a swig of his coke smugly.

'It would do you well not to assume such things.' Chiron said, laying his cards down face up. 'I do believe I have won.'

Mr. D choked on his drink, spluttering something about cheating and demanded a rematch.

'If I really am a demigod, then who's my godly parent?' I asked as Chiron shuffled the cards.

'And that's were our problem lies. We know for a fact that your father is a god, however we don't know which one.' Chiron admitted, dealing the cards as quickly as possible.

'Can't you just ask?'

'It's not that simple girl.' Mr. D snorted as he wiped down his now wet shirt.

'Why isn't it that simple?'

'The gods themselves have to claim you in their own time, you can't just ask.' Chiron sighed, looking a lot sadder than I had ever seen him.

'How do you know if you've been claimed?'

'You'll know.' I stared at Chiron intently, trying to figure out what had him so upset.

'There's more to it isn't there?' He sighed and nodded.

'Unfortunately, the gods tend to be,' he waved his hand in the air as if he was going to be able to produce the word he needed from thin air. 'Forgetful. The majority of our campers can go their entire lives without knowing who their parent is.'

I had a feeling that, that was putting it nicely.

'So I might never know?'

'It is the unfortunate truth.' He smiled sadly at me.

I ignored the fact that my father might not actually want anything to do with me, and continued on with my questions.

'Wouldn't people notice if there Gods and monsters were walking around?'

'The mist takes care of that.' Mr. D waved his hand dismissively.

'Excuse me?' I looked at him blankly.

'The mist is a magical substance that shields our world from the mortal one.' Chiron explained moving the cards in his hand around. 'While we see the Minotaur, others could see a very angry cow or a slightly deranged man. It depends on who you ask. However, as with all rules there are certain exceptions. Your mother, for example, was what we called clear sighted mortals. Mortals that the mist does not effect.

'Unfortunately many are driven mad before things are properly explained to them, a lot of mortals are unable to handle the possibility that there is a higher being involved in their creation, let alone the existence of multiple higher beings and creatures they know from stories they were taught at school.'

'There is also the problem with the mortals being too accepting of our world.' Mr. D began grimly. 'The might start asking the Gods for things, and will act out when we can't give them what we want.'

'Like immortally?'

'To name a few.' He shrugged.

'Okay, next question. If the Gods home is on Mt. Olympus and Mt. Olympus is in Greece, where are the God living now?'

'Mt. Olympus.' Chiron stated as if it were obvious. I blinked a few times.

'No offence, but I think the Greeks are smart enough to figure out that a mountain just vanished.' Chiron chuckled.

'The mountain itself is a figure head, so to speak. The Gods home was above the clouds, however they adopted the name of the mountain to also be the name of their home. Now however, Mt. Olympus currently resides on the 600th floor of the Empire State Building.'

'600th floor?' I wanted to make sure I heard right. 'You sure?'

'There's a special key you need for the elevator.' Grover chimed having finished with his diet coke can. 'But I wouldn't try thinking too hard on it.'

'Easier said than done.' I grumbled. Sighing, I looked at Grover and asked him something that had been bugging me since I came downstairs. 'If you're a Satyr then what were you doing at Yancy?'

'I'm a protector, it's my job to find half-bloods and bring them to camp safely.' Was the answer.

'Unfortunately, due to the unfortunate circumstances of the other night your job as protector is currently being questioned.' Grover looked down at his feet, shoulders slumping slightly at Mr. D's words.

'I don't understand. I'm here and uninjured.'

'But you weren't. You were meant to be brought to the camp uninjured, but you weren't. A minor concussion and several wounds whilst under the protection of a _qualified _protector calls upon some serious questions.' Mr. D took a sip of his diet coke and shrugged casually. 'And of course when we factor in the unfortunate demise of Sophie Jonson's mother then it's no wonder really that the council have decided to put you on trial to decide whether you should have your licence revoked.'

My chest clenched painfully at the mention of my mother but I pushed.

'It wasn't Grover's fault!' I protested, throwing down my cards. 'It wasn't like he killed her himself.'

'It matters not. Since there was a similar incident a few years ago Grover's ability to protect young demigods was already being called into question. As it is, this was his last chance to redeem himself.'

'Chiron?' A new vote spoke up, stopping the argument that was sure to have happened.

'Ah, Mr. Solace! Thank you for coming so quickly.' Chiron spoke hastily, turning in his chair to look down over the railing. 'Why don't you come and join us.'

I didn't hear the reply but when Chiron turned back around I was just able to make out a mop of blonde hair go past. Turning, I watched as the blonde made his way up a set of steps I didn't see earlier and up onto the patio. I recognised him as the boy who had been looking me over the second time I had up.

Only now, instead of hospital scrubs, he wore a pair of jeans and a bright orange t-shirt with the words 'Camp Half-Blood' imprinted on it. He had this laid back vibe going on, making me think he would most likely be seen lounging about in the sun somewhere considering how tanned he looked.

The moment he saw me he instantly straightened and looked far more serious than he had been seconds before. His eyes turned calculating and looked me up and down as if assessing me.

'Are you feeling any nausea? Dizziness?' He asked, catching me off guard.

'Ex- excuse me?'

'You had a mild concussion from your fight, I wanted to make sure that you've recovered properly.' He came closer to me and lifted my chin, turning my head to the side and with probing fingers poked and pulled gently at where I had injured myself during the crash. 'You're lucky, scaring is minimal. Most people probably won't even notice it.'

'Lucky me.'

'Will is one of the camp's medics.' Grover explained, probably seeing how confused I was.

'The Will who looked after me Will?' I asked without thinking.

'Yes, the Will who looked after you Will.' The boy in question answered, causing me to smile sheepishly at him. He stepped away from me, looking satisfied that there was nothing wrong with me and looked at Chiron expectantly. 'You wanted to see me?'

'I was hoping you'd be able to show Sophia around the camp. Mr. D, Grover and I have to attend a council meeting unfortunately, so Grover recommended that you be the one to take our place.' Chiron looked up briefly from his cards to smile at Will, making me think that saying no wasn't really an option here. I, on the other hand was looking at Grover in confusion. When had he done that?

'Uh, sure.' He looked a bit put off but gestured towards the stairs he came with his head none the less.

Not giving me a chance to even stand up, Will had moved for the steps before I could even react.

'Wait.' I called, not wanting him to get too far before I had even finished up here. I looked at Grover who had gone back to twisting the hem of his shirt nervously. 'Are you going to be okay?'

He looked up, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. He straightened up slightly when he realised I was talking to him and tried smiling at me but it came out like more of a grimace.

'Yeah, fine.' His eyes darted between me and Will pointedly. 'You should probably get going.'

Still feeling a little doubtful I stood, saying a quick goodbye to those at the table, then hurrying over to where Will still waited by the steps.

'Oh!' We both turned at Chiron's exclamation. 'Before I forget, Will, make sure Sophia gets to Cabin Eleven before dinner so that she can get settled.'

Will just nodded and motioned for me to follow him. I took one last look at Grover, who did his best to smile encouragingly at me, then hurried after Will.

* * *

><p>Will was silent for the majority of the tour, only really speaking up when necessary. Such as pointing out that the climbing wall, which by the way, spewed lava at random intervals (Will tried telling me that it was perfectly safe if you knew what you were doing, but I wasn't convinced).<p>

I was also shown the forge, where I was told someone would soon be taking me to get fitted for my own armour. The armoury, where I would get the opportunity to choose my own weapon. Then I was taken to the open air mess hall, which earned me a weird look from my tour guide when I asked where people ate when it rained.

I thought it had been a pretty good question.

It was only when I was shown the amphitheatre and the canoe lake in almost complete silence that I finally snapped.

'Have I done something to you? Did I punch you in my sleep or something, because if I did I'm really sorry.' I stated, stepping in front of Will to stop him from walking any further.

'Excuse me?' He looked at me blankly.

'You've barely spoken a word to me. I know I don't know you, but you could at least try to be nice to me.'

'You're right you don't know me. Maybe I'm just a quiet person.' I raised an eyebrow. 'I got into an argument with my brother this morning and it put me in a pretty bad mood.' I smirked.

'Want to talk about it? I'm a pretty good listener.'

'You don't know me.' He pointed out. A couple campers walked past, looking at the two of us curiously.

'True, but maybe talking to a stranger will make you feel better. That way you won't get any biased opinion.'

'That might be true, but I think I'll survive.' He moved around me and started walking again.

'Does that mean you're going to talk to me now?'

'I have a bad feeling that you're the type of person who doesn't give up easily.' I laughed, easily keeping pace beside him.

'See? Now we're getting to know each other.'

He pointed out the infirmary as we walked past. A low, square building with pale brown wooden panels and a ramp leading up to a white double doors and floor to ceiling windows that showed a small waiting area where a couple campers were waiting.

'You'll usually find me and my siblings either at the archer field or on duty here.' Will told me as we came to a stop in front of the building as a camper clutching his arm that seemed to be bent at an awkward angle was guided through the doors. 'Although if you need one us it's better to not interrupt us unless it's an emergency.'

'How many brothers and sister do you have?' I asked curiously.

'Nine brothers and six sisters. My father gets around a lot.' He explained seeing my wide eyes.

'And who exactly is your father?' Will straightened slightly, his chest puffing out a bit.

'Apollo, God of archery, music, medicine, prophecy etcetera, etcetera.'

'So that's why they let you look after the helpless, unconscious girl then.' He shrugged.

'One of the reasons. We're not the only healers here, but we are the best. We tend to be the ones who look after the major injuries, thankfully though we don't get many bad cases.' He nodded his head in the opposite direction of the infirmary. 'C'mon, we're not done yet.'

He dragged me to the archery fields, which I had to admit were pretty impressive. One side of the field had the normal targets you'd associate with archery. And on the other side of the field were smaller targets attached to wires and were moving at various speeds, while a few campers were shooting at them with terrifying accuracy.

'The two blondes are Lee and Michael, my older brothers, Michael is actually my cabin's councillor. And the one with brown hair is Daniella Rhode, a daughter of Aphrodite. Not many of them like to get their hands dirty, but Daniella is one of the cool ones.'

I nodded, still fascinated by the skill these kids who looked only a couple years older than me possessed.

Will pointed down to the far end of the field, were I was just able to make out a rope fence that cut off a section of the field from the archery range.

'Over there is where you'll practice with javelins, but there isn't a lesson on those who prefer fighting with spears tend to go out there to practice.'

'Do you prefer spears?' I asked curiously, as he guided my away from the field.

'Not really no. They're too long for me, don't really know where to put my hands. Unfortunately children of Apollo tend to only be good with a bow and arrow. We're alright with swords I guess, but we mainly stick to our bows.'

We carried on with the tour, Will pointing out the Pegasus stables, the strawberry fields, arena, arts and crafts centre, volleyball court and beach as we passed them. I noticed that Will had started rushing a little bit towards the end, but when prodded he assured me that it was only because dinner was going to be in an hour and I had to get to cabin eleven before it started.

'So these are the cabins.' Will announced, walking backwards with his arms spread wide as if presenting me the greatest thing ever. 'Each of the cabins are built with the major gods in mind, and all are numbered and placed in the exact order the gods themselves would be sat during council meetings. Gods on the left and Goddesses on the right.'

I looked around at the buildings in amazement. No two were the same. Each were of a different height and colour. One looked like it was made entirely of white marble, with massive white columns at the front. Another actually had working smoke stacks sticking out of the roof, while another resembled a cottage you might see in the English country side with a thatched roof that had a few flowers sticking out of the moulding and ivory crawling up the side of the door.

'Is that real gold?' I asked Will as I stared open mouthed at the rectangular building that was quite literally glittering in the sunlight.

'Yup, that's my cabin, cabin seven.' Will smiled, looking on proudly at the building.

'Don't you think it's a little bit –' I trailed off, not wanting to insult someone who could quite possibly become my new friend.

'Much? Yeah. But each cabin is meant to be a representation of its patron god, and since my father is known for showing off…' He left the sentence hanging and motioned for me to follow him. 'Over there are the showers and toilets. Each cabin has an allotted time when they're allowed to use the showers, which may or may not change during cabin inspection.'

I nodded in understanding, eyes still darting between the unique buildings. I grimaced when we passed one of the cabins. It was painted blood red, had barbed wire on the roof and what I what I was pretty sure was a real stuffed boar's head, who's eyes seemed to follow me as I walked by.

I sincerely hoped that if I ever was claimed that I wouldn't end up there.

'Over here is the campfire, every night we sit together and tell stories and sing karaoke – don't worry you don't have to join in – and every Friday night, after Capture the Flag we have this massive buffet to celebrate the winning teams success.' Will informed me, stopping at the fire pit that already had a fire burning ready for later on.

'What's Capture the Flag?' I asked curiously.

'It's this game we play every Friday evening, where we learn how to put our battle skills to good use since not many of us actually spend time outside camp. It's also good for –'

'Lookie here boys, fresh meat.' A gravelly, deep voice sneered.

I looked up and met the pig-like brown eyes, of this really buff girl. Normally I wouldn't expect such a deep voice to come from a girl, and for a second I actually thought it was one of the guys behind her who spoke. But when she spoke again, it made a little more sense.

'Name's Clarisse La Rue, daughter of Ares. And you, _punk, _are in my way.' Her stringy brown hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail, but a few strands hand managed to make its way loose and hung in front of her eyes. Somehow managing to make the sneer on her face all the more terrifying.

'How am I in your way? There's plenty of room to move around me.' The pig called Clarisse growled and stepped closer to me, forcing me to tilt my head to be able to look into her eyes.

'Maybe I wanted to stand there.'

'Then I recommend you find a new place to stand 'cos I'm not moving.' I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow.

'Sophia, now isn't the best time to –' Clarisse held up a hand to stop Will from talking.

'Calm your head sunshine, all I planned to do was give newbie here a proper Camp Half-Blood welcome.'

'I'm fine with the welcome I got thanks.' I snapped, turning away from her and nudging Will to start walking.

But before we could even take five steps, Will was knocked to the ground while I was lifted up off of the ground and tucked underneath someone's arm.

'No one turns their back on me. You'd best remember that.' Clarisse, who also turned out to be the one carrying me, growled.

I managed to lift my head high enough to be able to see where we were going. The freakishly strong girl was carrying me towards what Will had identified as the toilets. She slammed the door open, causing it to bang into the wall of the girls bathroom so hard that for a moment I thought that the brown tiles might actually fall off of the walls.

I was then more or less thrown onto the floor, and had to grab onto one of the stalls to try and right myself. When I finally righted myself, I was grabbed by the back of my shirt and was lifted up to the point where the tips of my toes were barely scuffing the floor.

'You know, it's not very nice to ignore someone when all they want to do it welcome the new kid to camp.' Clarisse snarled, I was vaguely aware of her cronies snickering in the background.

She kicked open a toilet stall door and forced me down onto my knees in front of the toilet.

'You know, you're looking a bit thirsty.' She laughed, now griping the back of my hair painfully.

'No thank I'm good. But if you want a drink then by all means –'

The pig-girl hybrid growled and tried pushing me head first into the toilet. I was quick enough to react and braced my arms at the side of the toilet, not really in the mood to find out what toilet water tasted like.

But Clarisse didn't let up. She tried pushing harder against me, until she finally gave up and let go of the back of my head shirt, something of which I was grateful for since my arms had started to shake pretty badly, until she then reached around, grabbed my arms and locked them behind my back.

As I struggled against her grip I was just able to hear the pipes groaning, as if something heavy was pressing against them. The more I struggled, the louder the pipes got, but at that moment I was more concerned by the brute of a girl standing behind me determined to get my head into the toilet.

My stomach tightened uncomfortably, distracting me long enough for the pig-like girl to get my head closer to the toilet.

'Give up newbie, you won't –'

_WHOOSH!_

Water exploded from the toilet like a geyser, gallons of water drenching everything in sight. Clarisse screamed in surprise, she had gotten hit directly in the face by the sudden explosion.

Water burst through the pipes, the sudden pressure to much for them to handle. There wasn't a single space untouched by the water. The small space had turned into some weird attraction you might find at a water park.

Clarisse and her cronies were yelling and trying to get out of the small space, but slipped on the wet floor.

I sat still on the floor, unable to stop watching the toilet as it continued to spew out water by the gallons. I was just able to hear the bathroom door open and Clarisse's angry voice telling me that I would pay for this, and that I'd better watch myself.

I didn't respond. The toilet was far more interesting.

When the bathroom door slammed shut, the spurts of water started to slow down until there was nothing left bar a few drips from the pipes.

I stood on shaky legs and looked around, placing a hand on the toilet stall to keep myself upright. The entire stall (and I was pretty sure if I opened the stall door I'd find the same thing) was soaking wet.

Except for where I stood in a completely dry, perfect circle that was just big enough to fit me kneeling down.

'Sophia? Are you o – what happened?' Will's voice echoed through the now empty room, his footsteps faltering as he took in the drenched room.

I was finally able to move and managed to pull open the stall door, my shoes squelching as I stepped through the puddles.

Will stood in the middle of the room, wide eyed as he spun in a circle trying to take in as much of the room as possible. He stopped moving when he caught sight of me.

'What happened?' He asked again, his voice at a slightly higher pitch.

I looked around the room in stunned silence, swallowing thickly as I tried to get my voice to work.

'I actually have no idea.'


	7. AN

**A/N**

**Chapter's 5 and 6 have been updated.**

**xxWelshGirl4Lifexx**


	8. My food goes up in flames

**I don't own Percy Jackson**

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><p>"Here we are, Cabin 11. Home to the unclaimed and the children of Hermes, and now, your new home." Will and I stood in front of a slightly bigger than average cabin. It looked homey enough, although it could probably do with a bit of work done to it. The brown paint that had been painted onto the walls was peeling off in some places and cracking in others. A few of the floorboards on the steps that led up to the door were loose, and were in desperate need of being nailed.<p>

But other that those small problems, it seemed friendly enough.

"Are you coming, or are you just gonna stand there looking like a goldfish?" I looked towards Will and was surprised to see that during the time I had spent staring at the cabin, he walked ahead of me and was now by the steps that led up to the door.

I quickly jogged up to him and was about to make my way up the stairs when Will held out his arm in front of me.

"Remember, the children of Hermes are notorious thieves, so keep anything you have on you that would catch their eye out of their sight." I nodded my head and followed slowly behind him up the small flight of stairs, suddenly becoming nervous of meeting my new cabin mates.

Will looked back at me with a smile of encouragement.

"You ready."

"As ready as I can be." Will knocked loudly against the door as we waited for someone to answer. It had barely been a few seconds before the door swung open and the sound of chatter reached our ears.

A tall blonde figure who towered over Will and I, stood in the doorway, hand still holding onto the door handle as though he was waiting for an excuse to shut the door.

"Hey Will, what can I do for you?"

"Hey Luke, I'd like you to meet Sophia, Chiron asked me to show here around camp so I thought it would probably be a good idea to show her where she'd be staying." I stepped out from behind Will and had to stop myself from gasping at the sight in front of me.

Luke, was gorgeous. His blonde hair framed his perfectly shaped face and baby blue eyes stood out against tanned skin. And his muscles, don't get me started on them, they were amazing and big, really big. I think he would have been able to take down the Minotaur in half of the time it had taken me to do it with those muscles. The only thing that ruined this perfect man, well, I say ruined but I think that would be taking it a bit too far, actually the more I think about it, I think it makes him look braver somehow, anyway the only thing that ruined or improved, whichever way you wanted to look at it, was the scar than ran from his jaw bone to the bottom eye. It looked like it had hurt, but like I said, it seemed to make him look braver.

"Nice to meet you," I smiled shyly at him when he grinned at me.

"Name's Luke Castellan, counsellor of cabin eleven, son of Hermes." I shook his hand with a bit more enthusiasm than necessary.

"Sophia Jackson, daughter of unknown." I cringed inwardly at the lame attempt to make a joke, but brightened up considerably when he laughed.

"Well we're a bit short on room, but I'm pretty sure we'll be able to find something for you." I

"I'll take what I can get."

"I'm afraid that all we'll be able to get you will be a sleeping bag on the floor." I was surprised at this, were the Gods really ignoring their children?

I turned my attention back to Will when he placed a hand on my shoulder.

"I have to go and get ready for Dinner, but I'll see you later yeah?"

"No problem, bye Will." I waved to Will as he left. I looked back at Luke and smiled at him. He motioned for me to follow him into the cabin. He led me to a closet at the end of the building and pulled out a sleeping bag and a small toiletry bag.

"Since you haven't got many clothes I can ask someone if they can lend you some for the time being."

"No it's fine, I'll ask Annabeth if I can borrow some from her." He looked at me in surprise.

"You've met Annabeth?" I nodded

"Yeah, I met her earlier she leant me these clothes."

"Strange." I looked at him in confusion.

"Why is it strange for someone to be lending me clothes?"

"Annabeth just isn't that kind of person. She's very selective when it comes to who she talks to."

"Really? It looked as though she didn't mind being around me." Luke motioned for me to follow him to a small corner of the cabin before continuing his interrogation.

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, she seemed overly pleased that I was here. And practically dragged me around half the camp before someone from her cabin saved me."

"Well I'll be careful if I was you Sophia, I think she might want something from you."

"How do you know this?" He shrugged his broad shoulders at me

"I've known her since she was seven. She's my best friend."

"But what could she want from me?"

"Don't know, but keep a close eye on her and remember Athena always has a plan." I nodded in understanding and stored that piece of information in the back of my mind.

"Thanks for the warning."

"Don't worry about it, and remember, you're not alone here Sophia, if you ever want to talk come and find me."

"I might just do that." He smiled at me and started to walk over to where I assumed he slept. He turned back to me when he had walked only a few steps.

"Dinner is in a few minutes try not to get too settled." I thanked him and turned back to my space and sighed. Hopefully this summer will get better.

* * *

><p>Dinner wasn't too bad I guess, well besides the fact that it was really uncomfortable at the Hermes table, there was barely any room to sit on the benches with so many kids seated there. It was so bad that I was almost completely seated on Luke's lap. Not that I was complaining.<p>

But I did get a bit confused about the rules everyone had to listen to during meal times, as soon as everyone had a plate of food in front of them, people seemed to ignore the food entirely, before one by one, people started to walk up to a small fire that was placed in the corner of the hall. When I asked Luke what they were doing he said they were offering a portion of their food to the Gods, apparently they liked the smell. So, I followed my cabin in turn as they joined the line leading to the fire then, finally, it was my turn.

_Whoever you are, tell me. Please. _

Luke and I ended up spending dinner talking about our families, but unfortunately that subject had only lasted until I questioned him about his father.

"Have you ever met your father?"

"Only once, but that was a long time ago."

I waited for him to continue, but soon realized that it wasn't going to happen as he changed the topic.

After dinner I followed Luke to an outdoor arena, which everyone kept calling the Amphitheater. According to Luke the Ancient Greeks held shows in Amphitheater's, where actors would perform different stories, sometimes of a hero's achievements. But in camp, the Amphitheater was where they held campfire's, where Apollo's kids would lead a sing along. And on special occasions Chiron would tell stories about his time as a teacher back in ancient Greece to teach us an important lesson, but basically everyone just sat around a campfire talking and having a good time.

He also told me that it had become a camp tradition to hold a campfire every night except for Friday, but that only meant that there'd be a longer one on the Saturday, so I hoped that they were going to be good, otherwise I might find myself being bored to death, or falling asleep. Whichever came first.

At the campfire, I looked around at all the people who were smiling and laughing with their friends and siblings, it seemed like a big happy family, then I realized that for some, this was probably their only family.

My eyes accidentally caught Clarisse's and I shuddered slightly. If looks could kill, I would be dead about a hundred times over. Something told me that Clarisse didn't appreciate what had happened earlier.

"You okay?" I jumped slightly at Luke's voice, not realizing how close he was to me.

"I don't think Clarisse like's me that much after earlier." Luke looked over at Clarisse and grimaced slightly at her glare.

"So it was true?"

"Yeah it was," Then my eyes widened slightly as I realized, I hadn't even told him about the toilet incident. "Hang on. How did you find out?"

"Word travels fast around here. It's hard to keep anything a secret in camp."

"But it only happened a few hours ago, and there was barely anybody nearby."

"Like I said, word travels fast. So, how'd you do it?" I shrugged.

"No clue. One moment she's about to stick my head down the toilet, then the next second the toilet exploded."

"But people said they had seen you come out of the toilet completely dry." I nodded.

"That's true, but I still don't know how it happened." He left the subject alone after that, then turned to one of his friends who were sat next to him, Chris I think his name was. Luke had introduced us earlier but we had barely said anything to each other since. I looked around the campfire and smiled at Will when our eyes met.

'_Everything okay?_' I smiled and nodded before tilting my head in Clarisse's direction and shuddering.

'_Don't worry 'bout it'_ He mouthed and I smiled at him

'_I won't'_

"Who are you smiling at?" my head wiped around to look at Luke.

"Only Will, he was asking if I was alright." Luke looked up to where I was looking earlier and frowned slightly.

"I wouldn't let your feelings get the best of you when it comes to him." I looked at Luke in confusion.

"What do you mean?"

"Apollo is a complete player. Unfortunately for most, that means so are his kids. They are almost as bad as Aphrodite's children."

"And you know this how?"

"I've been here for a long time, I notice things, if I didn't, how would I protect my brother's and sisters."

"That's a good point, but I'm only 11, and besides, Will was the first person I met here. He was just seeing if I was alright."

"If you say so"

"I am. Why does it bother you anyway?" Luke shrugged at me

"It doesn't. Honestly. It's just my job to look after the younger campers."

"Is everything alright here?" I jumped in surprise as a voice sounded from behind us. Luke laughed at my reaction before turning around and began talking to the person who had seemed to appear out of thin air.

"Hey Ann. What's up?" Luke asked, completely ignoring the blond haired girl's question. Annabeth shrugged before sitting herself down in front of us.

"Not much. Just came over to say hi." Annabeth turned to face me "How do you like camp so far?"

"It's interesting. Although I can't say I'm looking forward to joining the activities." Annabeth and Luke laughed.

"Don't worry about it," Luke said, "You get used to it soon enough, I did." Annabeth nodded her agreement.

"He's right about that, our bodies were built for this kind of work. It helps to have ADHD to."

"But how does ADHD help?"

"It's our battle instinct. The quick reflexes keep us alive on a daily basis." I nodded in understanding, before changing the subject.

"So how long have you been here?"

"I've been here since I was fourteen. Ann's been here since she was seven. We arrived here with-" Luke cut off suddenly and his face darkened from whatever memory he was reliving. I looked to Annabeth hopping for some answers, only to find her looking as though she was about to burst into tears.

"Sorry if that was a bad subject." Annabeth shook her head slightly,

"Don't worry about it."

"But still, I probably shouldn't have asked. I'm sometimes too curious for my own good."

"One day, you may find that, that can kill you." Luke said bitterly, I looked at him in shock, Annabeth seemed just as shocked as I was at his outburst.

"I said I was sorry." He sighed and turned to me this time with a giant grin plastered on his face.

"Don't worry about. I should be the one who's sorry." I leant back slightly, surprised at his sudden change of emotion. I looked at Annabeth only to find her looking at Luke with slightly pursed lips, looking as though she was deep in thought.

I thought about asking Annabeth for some spare clothes that I could borrow but decided against it, she had seemed very upset about my question, and if I wanted some clothes to borrow, then it probably wouldn't be a good idea if I made her angry with me. So I left it alone and we ended up spending the rest of the Campfire in complete silence.

* * *

><p>The rest of the night passed without anything else happing, and soon the campfire was ending. I almost groaned as I saw counsellors calling for siblings to make their way to their cabins to get ready for bed.<p>

"Don't worry about it," I looked to Luke, slightly surprised that my disappointment so clear "There's another campfire tomorrow remember." I nodded remembering our conversation from earlier.

"Cabin Twelve! Make your way back to the cabin, I want you all back by the time I get there!" Luke motioned for me to follow him after he finished addressing anyone from our cabin who had stayed behind. I looked around and watched the campers that were rapidly pouring out of the Amphitheater, trying to get back to their cabins before they got in trouble with either their eldest siblings. We waved at Annabeth, as we passed, but weren't noticed as she was busy trying to get the more reluctant siblings, who seemed determined to stay behind, away from the campfire.

"Is she in charge of her cabin then?" Luke nodded at me.

"She's been here longer than her other siblings, and the most experienced, so it seemed natural if she became the cabin's counsellor." I nodded in understanding at him.

The rest of the walk was silent, and I was starting to feel the day's events start to catch up with me. I yawned widely.

"Tired?" I nodded once again, "Don't worry we're almost there."

Back at the cabin I mumbled goodnight to Luke, before waiting my turn in the toilet and sluggishly changed into the pair of pjammers that Luke had kindly enough gotten for me before dinner. I crawled in the sleeping bag and made myself comfortable on the floor.

"Lights out everyone," Luke called from the front of the long room before turning off the lights. Although I was tired, I didn't go to sleep at once. I lay awake for what felt like hours, thinking back over what had happened the last few hours.

'_I find out that my mum is dead, and that I am a demigod in less than three day's Then I find out that now that I know what I am, the moment I step outside of camp, monsters will start looking for me to have for dinner. Then I find out that I may, or may not find out who my father is. Wow, my life has turned out to be one heck of a drama.'_

Just before I fell asleep, I could have sworn I had heard the door open and close.


	9. We capture the flag

**I don't own Percy Jackson**

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><p>Once again, I dreamed.<p>

* * *

><p><em>I was surrounded by dark, damp stone walls. Nothing about this place seemed familiar, so I couldn't have been here before, and something told me I shouldn't be here. A huge black hole spread out across the floor, barely leaving enough floor space for someone to stand comfortably on. I stepped towards the edge carefully wanting to look down into the black abyss. Something about this place set me on edge, something evil was in that pit, I could feel it.<em>

_I leant towards the edge hoping to see what was in there, but ended up nearly slipping into the pit. It was as though there was some kind of unknown force trying to drag me down into the black depths. I heard shuffling coming from somewhere behind me. Spinning around quickly, I faced a long dirt path that led up to where I was standing. I squinted into the darkness that surrounded me hopping to find what had made that noise. I looked around panicking as I saw someone walking towards me. I found I small alcove that was just big enough to fit me. I slipped into the small gap and stood still, hoping that whoever was coming wouldn't notice me. _

_Luck seemed to be on my side, as whoever entered the room walked right past me making no indication that they knew I was there. I watched as the person made their way towards the edge of the giant pit. I concentrated on this stranger, hoping to figure out who they were. But all I could tell was it was a boy. _

"_You summoned me, my Lord?" I knew that voice, but how did I know it?_

"_So, you finally arrive." A deep, hoarse voice rumbled from the pit._

"_I apologise my Lord, but I had to make sure everyone was asleep before arriving here. I didn't want anyone becoming suspicious."_

"_It does not matter. You are here now. But if you ever arrive late once more, I swear that when I get out of this blasted place. I will make sure that you are severely punished." _

"_Of course my Lord, it will not happen again." _

"_Good. Now, onto more important matters. Why don't you tell me about your day. "_

"_My day my Lord?"_

"_Yes, your day. Is there something wrong with your hearing, or is your brain too small to make sense of such a simple question?"_

"_O-of course not my Lord." The boy stuttered. "I was just wondering why you would like to know about my day." _

"_Reliable sources tell me that you had been beaten today in sword fighting. Is this true?" I saw the boy visibly gulp._

"_Yes my lord."_

"_And on their first day of training as well, it made me so upset to learn that the best swordsman was beaten by a boy on his first lesson."_

"_Actually my lord, it was a girl." The boy looked down at his feet. The silence that appeared soon after that sentence seemed endless._

"_What?" The voice snapped._

"_I said it was a-"_

"_I know what you said! A girl? You were beaten by a girl?"_

"_Yes my Lord."_

"_How could you let such a thing happen?" The boy seemed to move away from the pit slightly._

"_It was only once. It might have been beginners luck or something, but she couldn't beat me again."_

"_She shouldn't have beaten you at all! What am I going to do when the best sword master our cause has is beaten by a little girl? How will we accomplish what we have had planned for months, when you keep getting beaten?" _

"_It was just the once my lord. It won't happen again."_

"_Your right it won't. You are going to kill her as soon as time permits."_

"_Kill her, my Lord?"_

"_That's what I said wasn't it? Any threat to this operation must be eliminated."_

"_But what if I can get her to join us? I think that with the proper training she could become extremely dangerous to our foes." _

"_Hmm. That might work. But what if she doesn't comply? What will you do then?" _

"_I'd have to kill her."_

"_And what if she ends up being useless? What about then?"_

"_I'd have to kill her."_

"_It seems that no matter what will happen you will have to kill her. If that-"_

"_But what if she isn't useless and does want to join us?"_

"_DO NOT INTERUPT ME!" The ground around us seemed to shake under the voice's anger. The boy went down onto his knees and bowed his head._

"_I apologise my Lord. Please forgive me." The voice ignored the boy's pleas and carried on as if nothing had happened."_

"_If you end up killing her anyway, what is the point of keeping her alive?"_

"_I don't know my Lord."_

"_Just as I thought. So, what are you going to do?"_

"_Kill her."_

"_Good boy, now before we move onto more pressing matters, I believe we have an audience."_

_The boy spun around to face me, his hand going to the sword strapped to his waist._

* * *

><p>I shot upright in my sleeping bag, drenched in a cold sweat, breathing heavily. That had seemed so real. I hopped it wasn't real, but if it was, I hopped that whoever that girl they had been talking about was alright.<p>

I tried falling back to sleep, but sleep wouldn't find me. I lay awake for hours replaying my dream over and over in my head. Sleep finally found me, just as the first few rays of sunlight shone through the thin curtains.

* * *

><p>Time flew by and before I knew it, a week had passed. I had spent a lot of my time with my cabin mates in training sessions, and I found that during training, a lot of people watched me, Chiron and the head councillors included. It was as though they were looking for something that would answer their questions, but apparently they hadn't found yet.<p>

Anyway, back to the training sessions. Chiron made sure that no one was left out during lessons, and made sure that everyone had something to do. This helped a lot when dealing with a hundred or so hyperactive kids. There were a lot of things people had to do, and you often found some people running in-between lessons to get to their next place of action before being punished and sent to the kitchen to work for the day. I had been luckily enough not to be one of those kids as either Luke, Will or Annabeth were with me, guiding me to the right places on time.

I had to admit, this camp really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The instructors kept us on our toes and made each session enjoyable, while making sure we were learning something. Although Chiron, who took the archery lesson quite often, seemed to give up on teaching me the sport, after I had managed to miss the target completely and get my arrow stuck in his tail.

And I'll admit, that wasn't the only time I had managed to miss the target. At one point, my arrow flew in the opposite direction of the target and sailed toward Clarisse and her gang, who had been walking past the archery range at the time. They had only just managed to duck in time, and I had ended up the victim of their glares for the rest of the week. _They still hadn't forgiven me. _But I wasn't complaining, the look on Clarisse's face was priceless.

But while archery was defiantly my weak point, I seemed to be fine when it came to swords. Okay, I'm not great with them, but I think I might have chosen my preferred weapon. The only problem was, I couldn't find the right sword, they were either too heavy or too light. So for the time being, I had to deal with a one foot long sword that had rusted slightly and seemed like it would fly out of my hand at any moment until the Hephaestus cabin had manage to forge a sword that would fit me. Although it seemed like they were fighting a losing battle.

Anyway back to the sword fighting lessons, I had been pleased to find that Luke was the instructor for many of the cabins, as he was the best sword master the camp had seen in 100 years, well that's what Annabeth told me, and to be honest, I think she might have a slight crush on him so I think her opinion was slightly biased. But hey, I'm not one to judge, after seeing his skills with a blade, I'd have to say what she said was true. I remember the first lesson I had with him, and how much pity my other cabin mates had looked at me with when I had been left without a partner and had to pair with him.

"Sophia, thank you for volunteering," I walked on shaky legs up to where Luke was standing in the middle of the arena, standing in front of us. I had to cope with the murmurs of pity and the whispered apologies as I made my way up to him.

"Right, today we will be working on basic defence and offensive moves before moving onto the difficult stuff, seem fair?" After very few people nodded in agreement to his words, Luke started the lesson by demonstrating what he wanted everyone to do. On me.

"Keep up Sophia" He'd say. "Don't let your guard down. Lunge. Okay now block." But every time I seemed to do something wrong and by the time Luke called for a break, I was covered in bruises and I knew I'd feel more than half of the hits he had landed on me in the morning.

"Cheer up Sophia, you did well," I looked up at Luke through narrowed eyes in an attempt to look angry at him, but it only seemed to make him laugh. "I'm serious; most people would be in the infirmary by now."

He led me over to the water fountain and I watched as he grabbed two cups of water and passed one to me. I drank half of the water in the cup in one breath before closing my eyes and leaned back against the wall that the fountain was up against. I smiled at how good the water had felt as it travelled down my throat. When I opened my eyes I had just caught Luke as he tipped the last of the water that was in his cup over his head.

"You've got five minutes before I call everyone back" Luke smiled at me before walking away back toward the center of the arena once more, before pulling out his sword and started to twirl it in wide arches.

"Show off," I mumbled. I looked down at my cup and thought back to how Luke had thrown his water over his head. It seemed like a good idea. I lifted the cup to above my head and tipped it upside down. Instantly, I felt refreshed as the water came in contact with the top of my head. By the time I had walked back over to Luke I had a huge grin plastered across my face.

"What's got you so happy?" He had asked me

"No clue, but I feel great." And it was true, all of the pain that Luke had so kindly granted me during his beating, had completely disappeared, and now I felt absolutely amazing. Luke looked at me oddly, like he couldn't believe how quickly my mood had changed.

"Are you going to continue the lesson or not?" Luke blinked at me for a few seconds before turning around slowly to face the front of the arena and called everyone back to him.

"Okay, well like I promised we are going to be working on more difficult moves now and I'd like to show a disarming move. I'd just like to warn you, that even experienced sword masters have trouble with this. So don't be upset if you don't get it the first time round." He motioned for me to get into position before demonstrating in slow motion, and just as I thought it would, the sword flew out of my hand.

"Now in full speed," I picked up my sword and only just had enough time to step out of the way of Luke's attack. I raised my sword in defence and suddenly, it seemed like my body had been taken over by someone else, someone more experienced with a sword. I was meeting every one of Luke's blows and even managed to get in a few hits at him myself. Eventually my body seemed to be slowing down and I realized I had better get a move on and disarm him, or risk being hurt, again. I twisted Luke's sword around just like he had done to me and sent his sword flying to the ground.

Luke stared at his sword for a while completely stunned and it seemed that everyone in the arena had the same reaction as him.

"Was that okay?" Luke looked up at me wide eyed, completely stunned that I had managed to disarm him.

"Okay?" He asked, "That was amazing. Do it again." I did as he ordered but like the first time, it was my sword that ended up on the ground.

"Beginner's luck?" I offered as an explanation but Luke didn't seem convinced.

Ever since then, Luke has been watching me more carefully than before and seemed to follow me wherever I went. It was like he was expecting anything. But what I don't know.

Anyway, onto the 'who's my dad topic', I still have no idea who he is. I haven't really shown many talents that could tell us who he is, well besides sword fighting and canoeing, but I don't really know how that could help determine who I was.

On a lighter note, I have been spending a lot of time will Annabeth and Will, mainly Will, a lot. Mostly they help me with my Ancient Greek, but I sometimes find myself sitting with them at campfires. When I told them about what had happened in my lesson with Luke both had seemed surprised, but Will seemed more happy than surprised. He claimed that Luke needed to be beaten in sword fighting as his ego seems to get bigger and bigger every time he wins a duel. Which kind of explained why Luke had seemed so surprised that I had beaten him.

But I hadn't really seen Grover in while, although I had seen him at the campfire the other day, and we had spent the entire night catching up with each other. I was afraid of losing him, he really was a good friend, and it was because of him that I was alive.

Now that I have caught you up with the week's events, I bring you to the most important part of this chapter.

* * *

><p>"So what is Capture the Flag?" I was standing by Will in the mess hall waiting for something to happen. I had just been told that every Friday, the Camp holds a tournament called Capture the Flag, but that's all I know.<p>

"Basically you have to get the flag from the opposing team and get it across your team's boundary line before the other team gets it back off you and captures you." I nodded in understanding.

"Sounds simple enough," Will looked at me with raised eyebrows

"Does it sound simple when I tell you that everyone will be running around in full armour attacking the waving swords around like madmen _just_ to get a flag? Well that and boasting rights for the next week."

"Okay... I take it back." Will looked at me and laughed at the expression of horror that must have been on my face.

"It's not as bad as it sounds," He broke off from his sentence and looked to be deep in thought. "On second thoughts, scrap that last sentence. I can be pretty bad at times... Okay most of the time. Especially when the captains are angry at each other for something."

"And who, are the captains." I was almost dreading the answer.

"You haven't been told?" I shook my head.

"I don't even know whose team I'm on." He looked at me shocked that no one even thought of telling me this.

"You're on Annabeth's team, with me. But unfortunately that means we have to go against Clarisse. In fact it makes it worse since Annabeth is a captain this time." I groaned.

"How bad?"

"Well. Considering that Ares and Athena can't stand the sight of each other, their children have taken it upon themselves to hold that rivalry between each other as well."

"And what are the chances that they'll be on good terms?" Will snorted as though the thought of Annabeth and Clarisse being friendly towards each other was funny.

"About as likely as Athena and Poseidon decided to marry each other," As he finished his sentence, thunder boomed overhead. "I didn't mean it like that." The thunder continued to sound over head getting louder with each crash. "Okay, okay I'm sorry!" As soon as he said that the thunder stopped.

"Forget I said anything." I smirked slightly and looked at Will from the corner of my eye, "Don't look at me like that. I said I was sorry." I nodded my head quickly and shrugged my shoulders, still smirking.

"Whatever you say," He opened his mouth to say something but was stopped from saying anything as a loud horn sounded from somewhere in camp.

I looked around confused but followed everyone as they went to stand in front of a raised platform. As soon as everyone was in place Annabeth and Clarisse came running from opposite sides of the stage. Both carrying flags with their parents symbols on them, Annabeth an Owl and Clarisse a Boar. Chiron came onto the stage not long after them and stood facing the crowd of demigods, he waited for the cheering that had erupted when Annabeth and Clarisse came on to the stage to stop before speaking.

"Warriors, Hero's, Captains. I would like to remind you of the rules. No maiming, no killing. You may capture the opponents but you are not allowed to remove their weapons. You have ten minutes to place your flag and get into position. You may begin at the sound of the sound of the horn, chose your weapons wisely." He opened his arms wide as though trying to embrace us all and I noticed that the dinner tables had been covered with armour and weapons of various kinds. Will grabbed my arm and led me over to the tabled that Annabeth and Luke were at fitting themselves with armour. I looked at Will asking him silently to help me, only to find that he had already grabbed a set of spare armour that looked around my size.

"It's not perfect," He said. "But it will do until the Hephaestus cabin can get you a new set." I smiled in thanks at him before realizing something important.

"I have no clue how to put armour on." Will chuckled and started to instruct me on how to put the armour on while fitting himself with armour he told me was his. After getting dressed into our armour and after finding our weapons, we lined up waiting for orders.

"Blue's follow me," Annabeth's voice called from somewhere in front of us. I marched along with the rest of the team as we made our way into the forest.

"Sophia you forgot something." I turned to look at Will who had jogged up beside me, I looked over myself trying to see what I had forgotten but couldn't see anything. I went to ask him what he meant, but was stopped by something being fitted onto my head. I reached up and felt the cold metal of the Grecian helmet that Will had placed onto my head. I looked up at him and laughed

"Really?" He shrugged.

"I figured you want to fit in with everyone else on the team." I looked around and saw that he was right, everyone was wearing similar helmets to mine, with blue plumes of hair sticking up at the top. I only hopped he had given me a blue helmet and not a red one.

* * *

><p>"Sophia, I want you on border duty." I looked at Annabeth in shock.<p>

"Why me?" Annabeth gave me a look that clearly said that she didn't want to argue right now.

"Because I'm the captain and I said so." I didn't get a chance to argue back that I didn't have enough experience as Will started to push me away.

"I'll get her into position Annabeth, don't worry 'bout." I glared at Will as he continued to push me further away from where Annabeth was giving orders.

"Really Will? I can walk you know." Will stopped pushing me and let go of my shoulders as he led me toward where the border was.

We walked in silence for a while, until we came to a small river that splint the forest in half.

"Here we are." I looked at Will slightly scared.

"What exactly meant to do?"

"I thought it was kind of obvious," I gave him a look that said I wasn't in the mood to mess around. "All you're meant to do is stop people from crossing the border. Don't worry too much about it, not many people ever cross this way."

"Why?" Will shrugged.

"Never did find that out. And besides I won't be that far away from you. I'll be on the other side of the line to try and stop people from getting to the flag." I nodded slightly relived that someone I know would be nearby.

"Okay?" I nodded at him

"Okay."

"You sure?"

"Yes Will! Now get a move on before Annabeth kicks our butts." He laughed when I pushed him in the direction of the enemy's line.

"I'm going, I'm going. I can tell when I'm unwanted." I laughed at his antics before sighing. This was going to be a long night.

I have no idea how long had passed since the horn had sounded, but I'm sure it must have been an hour at most. I had been standing here bored stiff, twirling my sword around in my hands waiting for the game to be over. I guess I should be glad that I'm not involved in any fighting. But a part of me was anxious to get into a fight.

I was brought out of my thoughts by the sound of twigs snapping nearby. I looked in the direction it came from and almost groaned when I saw who had come out from behind the trees on the other sde of the river.

"Well, look at what we have here. A little Princess lost in the woods. Tell me Princess, where are your knights in shining armour?"

"I don't know what you're talking about Clarisse." Clarisse growled at me, which made me step back slightly.

"Don't play dumb with me Jackson."

"Clarisse, I seriously don't know what you're about." Clarisse laughed loudly, something I didn't really want to hear again. It sounded like a pig being attacked by a cow. And yes, I do realize that what I just said made no sense what so ever. But I swear that's what it sounded like.

"Well it's not surprising that you don't understand. I wouldn't have taken you as the dumb sort, but I guess I should have realized it when you let my brothers get past you." I was about to ask her what she meant when I heard more branches breaking behind me and gulped as I saw three, really big, and I mean _really _big, sons of Ares stepped out of the tree line behind me, looking just as big, bulky and as stupid as their sister.

"Not so tough now Jackson, are you?" Without turning my back on the sons of Ares I called back to her.

"What do you want? The flag is in the opposite direction." Clarisse snorted and I heard the water splashing as she walked through the river.

"Who said I wanted the flag Jackson?"

"Then what do you want?" I could hear getting closer to me, but I didn't want to turn my back on the slowly advancing Ares boys.

"I want you to tell us how you managed to pull off that stunt in the bathroom."

"I don't know!" Clarisse tutted sadly as though the thought of me not knowing upset her.

"Wrong answer," I felt her grab the back of my armour, before throwing me into river harshly. Her siblings laughed at my misfortune.

"How does it feel being the one getting wet Jackson? Not nice is it?" I glared up at Clarisse from where I was sitting in the river.

"I told you already. I don't know how I did it." I started to get up from the water, sudden anger rushing through my veins. "And besides, it wasn't like I did it on purpose."

"You insulted me!" I stalked right up to Clarisse and stood toe to toe with her. I had to tilt my head back so I could look her in the eye, but that didn't stop me from shoving her.

"You wanna tell me how I did that?" She growled even more and stalked right up to me, standing in front of me just as I had done to her before.

"You got toilet water all over me!" I raised an eyebrow at her.

"Really? Just because I got toilet water on you. After _you_ tried sticking _my _head down that toilet." I laughed a loud humour less laugh "It's not like the smell couldn't have gotten any worse. However I did it, I did you a favour, you needed a bath anyway." That apparently wasn't the smartest thing to say, as she let out a huge cry of rage. Her brother's took that as a signal and stalked towards me, like a lion would stalk its prey.

I stumbled backwards, suddenly realizing the danger I had put myself in, but as I turned to run I slipped and fell once again, into the river. Seeing that Clarisse's brothers weren't going to stop their pursuit of me, I got shakily to my feet and drew my sword. No way on earth was I going to back out of this.

The biggest one out of the brother's attacked me first. He swung his sword at me and I blocked it with my own. I suddenly felt a surge of strength and power flow through me. It was as though one hundred lessons of sword fighting had been taught to me in less than five seconds. I saw every move he made before he even made them, which put me one step further than him. Somehow during the fight, I had managed to bring him to his knees with my sword at his throat, his own sword a few feet away.

"Don't just stand there. Attack her." I looked up at Clarisse and frowned when I saw her other brother's step forward to meet me. But this time I step away.

Ugly number one ranched towards me, sword at the ready, but I easily sidestepped him before delivering a hard blow to his back with the hilt of my sword, sending him face first into the water. Ugly number two seemed slightly hesitant at attacking me, and faltered slightly so that gave me an advantage. I quickly brought my sword up and smashed the side of the sword against his helmet, bringing him to his knees in a daze. I quickly unarmed him and threw the sword a good two meters away from us. I turned to look at Ugly number three and raised my eyebrow at him, daring him to try and attack him. Unlike his brothers, he instantly turned and sprinted back the way he came.

"Coward!" Clarisse yelled after him before she turned back to me. "Guess I'm gonna have to finish you myself huh?"

"Bring it." She charged me with her spear, and I side stepped her. But she seemed to anticipate that as she brought her spear to my back. A huge jolt went through my back and I was sent flying further down the river. I sat up in shock; she couldn't be that strong, could she?

I turned back around to face Clarisse just in time to see her stampeding towards me. I threw myself onto the river bank just in time, but she still managed to scratch my arm with her spear hard enough to draw blood. I looked down in shock at my arm before looking back at Clarisse, my face hardened in anger. I walked back into the river to meet her. I picked up my sword from where I dropped it and stood still. Waiting for to make the first move.

"Argggggggggh" She charged towards me with a huge battle cry spear poised at the ready. As she drew nearer, I tightened the hold I had on my sword. When she was barley a few feet away from me, I swung m sword in a wide arch, cutting her spear in half. It cackled slightly as the piece I had cut off landed in the water, which I realized then, was electric. She had attacked me, with an electric spear.

'_Wow' ._I thought to myself '_they really do take thing seriously around here don't they?' _

Clarisse started swearing at me in Ancient Greek, the words I recognized would make even a sailor blush.

"You idiot!" She yelled at me. "That was a gift from my father!"

"Well," I started slowly, "You shouldn't have attacked me if you didn't want it broken." Before she could retort, cries of joy came from the enemy line. I stepped out of the way as Luke came flying past, the flag with a boar on it in his hand. But as he crossed the border the flag changed to a Caduceus, the symbol of Hermes. We had won.

"No!" Clarisse turned in a rage to some of her sibling who had been following Luke and began to yell at them for making them lose. I smiled as I watched Luke and his siblings and the rest of our team celebrate or win.

"Well done." I jumped in surprise and looked around for the voice. I could have sworn I had heard Annabeth's voice. I shook my head thinking I must have hit it at some point and not realized it; I only realized that I had not been imagining her voice, when Annabeth shimmered into existence next to me. I jumped and my hand instinctively raised my sword.

"Annabeth! You almost gave me a heart attack." She raised her hands up as though she was saying she came in peace.

"Sorry. I hadn't meant to scare you."

"Don't worry. How did you do that anyway?" She raised a Yankees baseball cap as her answer.

"A gift from my mother," she shrugged as though it didn't really matter where she got it from, but I could see she was incredibly proud of her cap.

"How long have you been there anyway?" She shrugged.

"I don't know, a few minutes before Clarisse appeared I think." I just stood still and stared at her annoyance starting to creep through me "What?"

"You have been here since Clarisse appeared, and you didn't even help?" She stepped back slightly surprised at my anger.

"It looked like you had it under control. And besides I was would have helped out if it had gotten out of hand." I clenched and unclenched my hands, she wasn't serious was she?

"It did get out of hand! Did you not see what just happened?"

"I did see, but I also saw you were able to take care of it." She held up her when she saw I was about to retort. "Don't argue with me. I think it's time we found W-" She stopped suddenly looking at my arm in confusion. "What happened to you arm?"

"Clarisse scratched it. You should kn-" But I cut my sentence short when I heard a growl come from behind me somewhere. I looked behind me only to find nothing there, I shook my head thinking I was finally going crazy.

"Your arm _was _bleeding. It's not now." I looked down at my arm and found that what she had said was true. Where there had once been a small gash, was now clear skin, no scar or nothing. It was like I hadn't even been cut at all, in fact the proof I had been injured was the ripped cloth of my sleeve and where the small amount of blood I had lost dried on my arm.

"Strange." Annabeth mused to herself. I looked back up to her face and saw she was in deep concentration as though she was putting the last pieces of a particularly difficult puzzle.  
>"What is it?" But before she could answer, a loud dangerous growl cut through the night. But this time I wasn't the only one who had heard it. Chiron barked something out in Ancient Greek that I realized to late what it meant.<p>

_Stand ready, my bow. _As everyone scrambled into position I stood still looking into the darkness. I reeled back in horror as a pair of glowing red eyes appeared on top of the small ridge that leaned over the river, looking straight at me. Annabeth seemed to realize its intention to, as she started to shout at me to run.

"Sophia run!" She screamed at me when I stood still, almost paralyzed. I only regained my senses as the beast leapt at me, and only then did I realize that it was too late. The beast landed on top of me clawing at me, drawing blood as it did. I fought back trying to get it off me, hoping to get it off me long enough to make a run for it. But it was too strong, it clawed at me ripping the skin on my chest. Through my struggling I managed to hear the familiar sound of a bow releasing an arrow. The arrow hit its target dead on, and the dog like beast fell off me before turning into a pile of dust, just like the Minotaur had.

"What was that thing?" I asked aloud

"A hellhound, sent from the fields of punishment." Chiron's familiar voice answered. "If it hadn't been for young William's arrow, you would probably dead by now." A pair of hands reached under to help me stand, as I staggered to stand upright one of the hands went to my waist, mindful of my wounds, to keep me steady. I looked up to see who had lifted me and saw Will's familiar face smiling worriedly down at me.

"Thank you." He shrugged

"Don't worry about it. C'mon, let's get you to the infirmary to get you cleaned up." I stopped him from leading me away from the forest, and when he realized I had no intention of moving he looked down at me confused.

"Sophia?" I ignored Will for a moment and looked at Chiron confused.

"I thought this camp was meant to be safe?" Chiron nodded solemnly.

"It is."

"Then how did the hellhound manage to get in?" A camper spoke up from somewhere in-between the cluster of demigods.

"It was summoned from someone within the camp." Came the answer from a sullen faced Chiron. He seem so sad at the thought of someone inside the camp endangering the campers.

"It was Sophia!" All eyes turned to look at Clarisse "She called it!"

"That's stupid!" Retorted Will "Why would Sophia summon a demon from hell itself and then let it attack her, endangering her life?" Murmurs of agreement went through the crowd but Will paid no attention to them and turned back to me.

"Let's get you to the infirmary before you lose any more blood." I nodded my agreement, suddenly feeling exhausted by everything that had happened tonight.

"Wait!" I almost groaned when I heard Annabeth's voice, Will seemed to share my feelings on the matter.

"What Annabeth?"

"Put her in the river." I looked at her through tired eyes, what was she doing.

"Excuse me?" It was Will who had asked the question, but it seemed as though everyone was thinking the same thing.

"Trust me."

"Annabeth, now's not the time for yo-"

"Trust me." Annabeth's voice came across more forceful than before. Will let out a great sigh before listening to Annabeth, but as we got to the water's edge Annabeth's voice once again stopped us.

"What now." Will barked at Annabeth getting annoyed that he couldn't even do one thing without her interrupting.

"Let her go in by herself."

"She can barely stand Ann-"

"Just do it Will." Will glowered at the blonde before making sure I was steady on my feet and let me go.

I stumbled quite a bit on my way towards the water and I almost fell flat on my face just as I stepped into the water. But as soon as I touched the water, I was glad I had listened to Annabeth. I don't know what they had in their water, but I was thankful that whatever it was made me feel better. My muscles relaxed and all of the pain the hellhound had caused me withered away. I looked down at my wounds and saw that they were starting to heal. The blood stopped first, then the wounds closed and scabbed over until there was no trace of being hurt, not even a scar.

I heard multiple gasps from everyone on the shore and started I started to panic, had I done something wrong?

"I-I don't know what happened. I'm s-" But Annabeth stopped me from continuing.

"Sophia...Look up." I did as she said. I looked at everyone that had crowed the water's edge and saw their faces lit with a green light. I looked up, not exactly sure what I was expecting to see, but what I did see was defiantly not what I had expected.

A glowing green trident was hovering above my head, it started to fade as I looked at it. After it had disappeared the entire forest had gone silent. And I mean the entire forest, the wind had stopped and the trees stood still, the water that was still rushing under my feet had seemed to become muted. No longer could you hear the breaths of the demigods that now stood shell shocked at what had happened. It was as though the entire forest was waiting with baited breath for something to happen.

It seemed as though years had passed until someone spoke. Chiron finally broke through the silence.

"It is determined."

"What?" I asked as I looked at everyone in confusion as they kneeled before me. Although with some reluctance on the Ares cabin's part.

"Your father," I heard Annabeth say before she to bowed before me.

"What" I asked again. This was not meant to happen. This defiantly was not happening.

"Poseidon," Said Chiron. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of horses. Hail, Sophia Jackson, Daughter of the Sea God." Then he to, moved into a deep bow.


	10. I meet the mummy

**I don't own Percy Jackson**

* * *

><p>I had moved into Cabin 3 later that night, Chiron had been kind enough to me move the very little belongings I had, into the cabin. The Cabin itself was actually quite nice, it was just the way people now treated me that made me feel awful.<p>

The outside walls were decorated with sea shells while the inside walls Cabin had been panelled with driftwood. Different shades of blue and green silken blankets had been folded neatly at the end of each bed. At the bottom of the room, there was a small bathroom that held only a toilet, sink and a mirror.

The cabin smelt strongly of an ocean breeze and through the windows at the end of the cabin, you had a perfect view of the ocean that stretched on for miles and miles over the horizon. You could see the same view from my table in the mess hall and when I had realized this, I had wondered if it was a coincident.

Being the only person in the cabin, meant that I instantly became the Cabin councillor, which meant I got to call lights out and choose my own schedule. Which in some cases, I suppose, was good, but I didn't see it that way.

I was miserable, I felt more alone than ever. I had finally felt at home here and had even learned my place in Cabin Eleven, then it all got ruined. I admit, at first I had wanted nothing more than to find out who my father was, but now I wasn't so sure. Annabeth was ignoring me and wherever I went, people stared at me. In fact it wasn't just Annabeth, it was all of Cabin six.

I had asked Will about it when Annabeth hadn't shown up for our regular Ancient Greek lessons, but all he had said was Athena and Poseidon had a lifelong rivalry, and had hated each other for millennia. So Athena's children naturally hated me, just as I should hate them. And to be honest, I was being to get very annoyed with them, so I believed that it wouldn't take long for me to hate them.

I know I said that I didn't feel comfortable around Annabeth, and now I knew why, but I had thought that she actually liked me, I had even began to like her back. But now that she had decided to ignore me, I take it back.

Then to make things worse, everyone had to wait for me at dinner times to sit down before they could actually eat themselves. I hated the way people looked at me whenever I walked into the pavilion, they stared at me with wonder, as though they couldn't believe that I was among them.

But it was the Monday after the dreaded Capture the Flag, that I had learned the hard way that things seemed to get worse before they could get better, and believe me, things definitely got worse.

I had been woken up two hours before I was even meant to be waking up, by someone banging on my door like a mad man.

"Grover what do you want?" I had asked him when I had opened the door, he had looked like he had just ran a marathon. His hair was all over the place and he was panting heavily.

"Chiron wants you," He said when he had managed to catch his breath. "In the big house."

I groaned and rested my head against the door frame.

"Couldn't he wait until _after _breakfast?"

"No, it's really important."

"Grover, its 6am. Can't he wait two more hours?" Grover shook his head violently.

"No, he wants to see you now!" I sighed in frustration before decided that I probably shouldn't keep Chiron waiting.

"Alright. Just give me five minutes and I'll be there." I didn't give him a chance to argue as I quickly shut the door in his face. This better be good.

* * *

><p>I found Chiron in the big house kitchen sitting in his wheel chair by the edge of a small table. Next to him sat Mr. D, looking as though Christmas had come early. Next to Mr. D, sat Grover, still panting after sprinting between here and my cabin.<p>

Chiron smiled at me when he saw that I had entered the room.

"Good morning Sophia, I trust you slept well?"

"Well I was, until I was rudely woken up ten minutes ago." I glared pointedly at Grover who held up his hands in surrender.

"Yes well, I apologise for that. But I'm afraid that there are matter's of importance that I must speak to you about."

"What could have been so important that I had to be w-"

"You have been accused of stealing Lord Zeus's master bolt."

The silence that followed this sentence was deafening. I sat heavily in a chair that faced the three men, well to men and one boy, at the other side of the table.

"What?" Chiron smiled sympathetically at me

"Your uncle, Lord Zeus, believes that you stole his lightning bolt."

"But I've never stolen anything in my entire life!"

"I never said you did," Chiron said calmly. "But Lord Zeus believes differently." I placed my head in my hands and sighed deeply, trying to keep myself from lashing out.

"When did this happen?"

"Two days before we went to the Metropolitan Museum."

"That was four months ago! I didn't even know who I was then."

"My father, believes that somehow your father, managed to convince you to steal his lightning bolt the made you forget about it."

"That's stupid!" I yelled, cutting across whatever Mr. D was about to say next. "He's stupid to even believe that." Thunder boomed threateningly outside making both Chiron and Grover wince.

"My dear, please be careful at what you say."

"I'll say whatever I want! He's the one accusing me of stealing. I've never stolen anything in my entire life!"

"Sophia, please sit down." I turned and looked into Grover's pleading eyes. I sighed and did as he asked.

"Why, does he think it was me?"

"Sophia, Zeus and his brothers have been fighting for centuries. It's become second nature for Zeus or his brother to accuse someone of something when something bad happens."

"That's not what I meant Grover. I mean why does he think it was _me? _I would understand if he accused my father, but why me?"

"Because, Gods are forbidden to steal other Gods symbols of power. So now Zeus believes that your father asked you to steal his Lightning Bolt."

"But I've never met my father."

"Your uncle believes differently." I placed my heads in my hands once more, why has my life gotten so out of hand?

"Is there any way I can prove him wrong?" Chiron stood up from his wheelchair and moved around the table to place a sympathetic hand on my shoulder.

"Lord Zeus will never admit to being wrong, but he has given you until the Summer Solstice to come clean."

"And when is the Solstice?"

"In two weeks."

"Two weeks? Are you kidding me?" Chiron shook his head at my outburst "How am I meant to prove that I had nothing to do with his missing lightning bolt in two weeks?"

"I have decided to give you a quest." My eyebrows shot up into my hairline.

"A quest?" He nodded

"Yes, a quest to find your uncles Lightning Bolt."

"You expect me to find a lightning bolt in two weeks? That's impossible."

"It may seem like that, but it's either try, or get sentenced to death for not trying to prove your innocence."

"Then I guess I have no choice."

"You always have a choice." I gave Grover a small smile.

"Not always Grover."

"Well, as nice as this is. Shouldn't you be speaking with the Oracle?" I turned and faced Mr. D.

"The what?" He rolled his eyes and slammed his diet coke can onto the table.

"The Oracle. Styx Chiron, I thought you said she was your best student."

"She was, we just didn't cover the Oracle for long." Chiron defended me. "Demigods go to the Oracle to get a prophecy before going on quests, so that they know where to go, what will happen and what they should avoid. Of course there are many other reasons to gain a prophecy, but it is not necessary to go into it at the moment."

"Okay, so where do I have to go to be able to see this Oracle."

"Upstairs, in the attic." I raised an eyebrow at him.

"The attic, really?"

"What's wrong with the attic?"

"Nothing, it's just... Well the thing is..." I sighed, deciding that it probably would be better if I didn't say anything on the matter. "Never mind, let's just get this over with."

* * *

><p>Chiron reached up and pulled open the small door that would eventually lead me to the attic. Wooden stairs unfolded themselves as the door swung downwards.<p>

"Good luck Sophia." I turned my head quickly to look at him in surprise.

"You're not coming with me?" He shook his head. "Why?"

"Because this is something you have to do yourself," He patted my shoulder before moving to go back down the hallway. "I shall see you back in the kitchen when you are done. If you are still sane of course."

I gulped loudly as I looked up into the darkness that was the attic. I sighed before I started to climb up the ladder's steps. I wouldn't be that bad, would it?

A small square of sunlight shone through the partly covered window, giving me enough light to be able to see what was littered on the tables in the attic. A stuffed Hydra's head hung on the wall, how someone managed to get it like that was a mystery to me. Underneath the Hydra's head where many different pickled monster heads, I quickly moved away from those and tried to ignore the eyes that seemed to follow me.

I made my way towards a display of different types of trophies, that demigods before me had managed to win on their quests. One of which was a pair of fuzzy dice that someone called Gus, stole from Chrysaor's Honda Civic. I'm guessing he was a son of Hermes.

I stepped away from the display, and shook my head.

'_You're up here for a reason Sophia.'_ I thought to myself. _'Stop getting distracted.'_

"Hello?" I spoke aloud. "Is anyone here?" A soft bang caught my attention. "Hello? Where are you?" I saw something move out of the corner of my eye and spun around hopping to catch whatever it was. When I saw what it was I had to hold up a hand to my mouth to keep myself from screaming.

Standing in front of me, dressed in clothes that looked like the belonged in the 70's, was a mummy. After realizing that it wasn't going to hurt me, I moved my hand away from my mouth and started to take deep breaths, which I realized to late was not a good idea. The mummy absolutely reeked, she almost rivalled Smelly Gabe in smell, almost.

Where her eyes had once been, were now dark caverns, her skin was now sunken in and looked as though it would disintegrate at the slightest touch. She wore one of those old hippy dresses with the colourful flowers and had multi coloured beads hanging around her neck.

I decided to leave her alone and went to move away from her to see if I could find the oracle in this place, when I had to move my hand back up to my mouth to stop screaming again. I watched in horror as her mouth opened and green smoke started to spew out of her mouth. More and more of the smoke started to crawl out of her mouth and till it came up to about the top of my knees. I jumped as I heard her ghostly voice in my head.

"I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python. Approach seeker and ask."

I'm not sure how I knew what to say, but when I opened my mouth I seemed to know exactly what to say.

"What is my destiny?"

The green smoke started to slowly morph into shapes, until I could clearly see my lovely step father and his poker buddies.

Smelly Gabe opened his mouth and out of it came the Oracles ghostly voice. "You shall go west, and face the God who has turned."

His friend on the left looked at me. "You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned."

The guy on the right threw down his cards and said. "You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend."

Then the guy in the middle looked my dead in the eyes and spoke in the same ghostly voice as the others. "And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end."

I stood paralyzed as I watched the green smoke make its way back into the mummy's mouth. If that was how all prophecies were, I don't think I'd like to have an another one.

Slowly, I made my way towards the ladder. I needed to get away from this place.

* * *

><p>"So you're still sane huh?" I glared Mr. D when he spoke up. I had barely stepped into the kitchen and he was already annoying me.<p>

"Mr. D please, let Sophia sit down before you start questioning her."

"Yes Mr. D, let me sit down before, you start questioning me." I smirked at Mr. D when he glared at me, for some reason I found it entertaining when I made him angry.

"Well then Sophie, sit down and tell us what the Oracle told you." I growled at him.

"It's Sophia!" He waved his hand carelessly at me, before turning his attention to the newly opened can of Diet Coke.

"Sophia, why don't you sit down, and tell us what the Oracle said." Forgetting my anger towards the man in the purple shirt, I sat down and looked directly at Chiron.

"Well first she said, 'You shall go west, and face the God who has turned."

"Well that's obvious, you shall travel west. But who is the God who has turned? That is the question."

"Where, in the west am I going?"

"Think about it, if Olympus is above the Empire State Building th-"

"It is?"

"Yes, I thought I had told you that." I shook my head at him. "Oh, well in any case. Olympus is in the east, so what must be in the west?" I thought for a while, trying to think what could be in the opposite direction to Olympus.

"The Underworld?" Chiron nodded. "So I have to go to the Underworld? Are you kidding me?"

"That's what the Oracle told to do, so that is what you must do. Next line."

"You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned."

"Again obvious, you'll find the Lightning Bolt and bring it back. Clearing your name as well as your fathers in the process. Next line."

"You shall fail to save what matters most in the end." Chiron looked as this line troubled him greatly.

"That one isn't as obvious as the last two. Either way, we mustn't dwell on these things. Was there anything else?"

"No."

It's wasn't as though I didn't trust him, I just really didn't like that last line, well, I didn't like the other lines either. But being told that I'd be betrayed by a friend really upset me. And until that last line came true, I didn't know who I could trust.

Chiron seemed to realise that I was hiding something, but didn't press me on the matter and instead asked me something else.

"Who are the two people you'd like to take with you?"

"I only get to choose two?"

"Three's sort of a magic number with the Ancient Greeks," Grover answered. "So choosing two people to join you sort of makes sense."

"Well in that case, Grover. Will you help me on this quest?" Grover looked slightly surprised at this.

"Me?"

"Yes, you. You're my best friend, I can't do this without you."

"That would mean we'd have to go to the Underworld. I don't like dead people." Grover started to panic and started to hyperventilate, I think I even heard him bleat a few times as well.

"Grover, Grover calm down. You don't have to come if you don't want to." He looked at me as though I suddenly announced that Clarisse was good company.

"Of course I want to go."

"But you just said-"

"I know what I said but that doesn't mean that I don't want to go." I stared at him for a few seconds before turning and looking at Chiron.

"So that's one person, who else would you like to join you?" This choice was easier than it had been when I was choosing Grover.

"I want Will to come with us."

"What?" The four of us turned in the direction that horrible screech had come from. I watched in shock as Annabeth shimmered into existence, her baseball cap clutched tightly in her hand.

"Why him?" I shrugged.

"Because I trust him."

"And you don't trust me?" I sat forward in my seat, looking Annabeth dead in the eyes.

"You haven't spoken a single word to me since I was claimed."

"I'm speaking to you now!"

"Yes now, but only because I've been given a quest. How do I know, that when we come back you won't go back to ignoring me?" She looked down in shame, not saying anything else. "That's what I thought." I looked back up at Chiron.

"When do we leave?"

"As soon as the three of you are ready." I stood and slapped my hands against my thighs.

"Well in that case. I should probably make sure that Will is able to come."

"No need," Chiron looked over to Annabeth who was still looking down at the ground. "Annabeth, be a dear and go and see to it that William is up and ready to go." She nodded glumly before making her way back out of the house. I watched her with sad eyes. "She'll be alright, it's just been her dream to go on a quest and leave camp."

"But why won't she leave on her own?"I looked up at Chiron who smiled down at me.

"That is her own story to tell. Ask her about it when she is in a better mood." I nodded my head at him and turned to face Grover.

"Well? You coming?" He nodded happily and jumped out of seat. I wrapped my arm around his shoulders as we made our way out of the Big House.

"You gonna be okay G-man?" I asked him when we had reached my Cabin's door. It was still early so a lot of people would still be in bed, but I could see curtains swaying slightly as people started to get ready behind them.

"I'll be fine, just get ready. I'll get all the money we'll need, so don't worry about that." I could tell he was still worried about going on this quest so I gave him a quick hug.

"We'll be fine Grover, don't worry." I pulled away from the hug but made sure that my hands were still on his shoulders. "Besides, what's the worst that can happen?"

* * *

><p>I had been packing a pair of spare clothes into a bag that Chiron had kindly given to me, when someone knocked on my door.<p>

"Come in" I called, not looking up from folding my clothes.

"I hear we're going on a quest?" I laughed and looked up at the familiar face as I placed a shirt into my bag.

"Shouldn't you be packing?" Will shrugged his shoulders.

"I'm almost done, and besides I wanted to thank you." I looked at him in confusion.

"For what?"

"For trusting me."

"You saved my life how can I not trust you?" He shrugged.

"I don't know. I just didn't think I'd ever be given a quest, let alone asked to join one." I smiled at him.

"Well, now you've been asked. And if you want I'll even ask you formally if you'd like."

"You wouldn't." I raised my eyebrows at him before moving to stand in the middle of the room and spread my arms out wide.

"Will you, William Solace son of Apollo. Accompany me, on a quest to find my uncles Lightning Bolt, in the hopes that I, Sophia Jackson daughter of Poseidon, do not get blasted to pieces by said uncle?" Will laughed at my antics and applauded.

"Of course I will. On one condition."

"Yeah? And what's that?"

"That you will never, ever call me William again." I pretended to think about it for a second before sighing dramatically.

"If I must." Will laughed again and moved to leave the cabin.

"You are such a seaweed brain sometimes, you know that don't you?" He left the cabin quickly, to avoid the shoe I had thrown at him.


	11. I set a bus on fire

**I don't own Percy Jackson**

* * *

><p>Word spread quickly about the quest, and pretty soon, the entire camp had found out about it. People had come up to me all morning to wish me luck, and some, mainly the Ares cabin, came to say they hoped that I didn't make it back. Not that I minded, it just meant that I would enjoy proving them wrong.<p>

Chiron had given us a canteen full of Nectar and an air tight bag of Ambrosia squares, telling us to only use them in case of emergencies. The camp store had also given us about a hundred dollars and about twenty drachma. Each of these coins had a picture of the Empire Building stamped on one side and a picture of a God or Goddess stamped on the other side.

At the moment Will and I were walking in silence up to Half-Blood hill, where I could see Chiron and that blonde haired surfer guy.

"Hey Will, who's that blonde standing next to Chiron?" Will looked up the hill to see who I was talking about.

"That's Argus, the camp's head of security. People say he's got eyes all over his body, that's why you only see him every so often."

"Then why was he in my room when I was in the Big House after the attack?" Will stopped suddenly and looked at me in surprise.

"He was in your room?" I nodded. "Then Chiron must think you're someone important if he had Argus stay in your room."

I was about to ask him how I could be someone important, when Annabeth came running up behind us, yelling my name.

"I know your angry at me Sophia, but please hear me out," I raised my eyebrow at her.

"I'm listening."

"I'm sorry I ignored you. It just came as a shock that you are the daughter of my mother's rival."

"And? I know Poseidon and Athena have this huge rivalry thing going on, but why does that mean that we have one as well?" She looked at me as though someone had just killed her puppy. "I'll accept you apology, but don't think we'll become friends with just a click of a finger."

She grinned widely at me, before throwing herself at me in a bone break hug. "Thank you!"

"Annabeth, I'd like to breathe." I gasped, trying to pull myself out of the hug as quickly as possible.

"Sorry."

"Don't worry about. Look we have to - "

"Sophia!" I looked behind Annabeth and saw Luke running up behind her.

"Hey Luke, what's up?" I watched as Annabeth blush when Luke placed his arm around her shoulder.

"Not much, just glad I caught up to you. Do you guys mind if I talked to Sophia in private?" Will nodded his head in consent and started to head up the hill where Chiron and Argus where watching us. Annabeth on the other hand, was not so willing to leave as he had been.

"I'm your best friend Luke, can't I stay?"

"Sorry Annabeth, but I really want to talk to Sophia in private." Annabeth glared at me before stomping away back in the direction of her cabin. If I had thought we might become friends after this, we wouldn't be now.

"I wanted to give you this." Luke handed over a small shoe box, similar to the one Grover had given me the Minotaur horn in.

I opened the lid and found a pair of blue and white sneakers.

"Um...Thank you." He grinned at me, as though enjoying a little secret.

"They are a lot better than they look. Watch," He grabbed one out of the box and held it out in front of him. "Maia!"

The shoe he had been holding, suddenly sprouted wings from either side of the heel and started to flag slowly, making the shoe hover in the air in front of us.

"Whoa! That's... Wow!" Luke laughed at me

"I know, there pretty awesome aren't they?"

"I'd say, where'd you get 'em?"

"My father," I looked up at him wide eyed.

"Your father?" He shrugged at me.

"It's no big deal."

"No big deal. Luke your father gave them to you, I can't accept them" I tried pushing the box back to him, but he just stepped away from me.

"And I am giving them to you. Take them, please." I looked up into his baby blue eyes and thought I saw something flash through them. I sighed in defeat

"Alright, fine I'll take 'em" He grinned.

"Great, remember to get them to stop flying just say Maia again." As if to prove his point, the shoe flying in front of him dropped heavily to the ground.

"Thanks, I really appreciate it."

"Don't worry 'bout it. Just don't get yourself killed out there."

"I'll try." I gave him a quick hug before picking up the shoe from the ground. "See you in two weeks, yeah?"

"I'll be here" I waved goodbye to him before running up the hill to meet up with the rest.

"What did he want?" Will asked me when I reached the pine tree they were stood next too.

"He just wanted to give me these." I handed Will the shoe box, Grover looked over Will's shoulder to peer into the box as Will opened it. He looked up at me when he saw the sneakers.

"A pair of sneakers? Really?" I nodded enthusiastically

"They fly."

As I said that I realized something important, I wouldn't be able to wear them. With Zeus angry at me, it would be risky to fly, even if it was barely a few feet into the air. I looked up at Chiron, hoping that my suspicions would be wrong.

"I won't be able to wear them, will I?" I shook his head. I sighed and looked down the hill, hoping to find Luke nearby so I could return them, but found that he had already left.

I sighed disappointedly before taking the box back from Will.

"What are you going to do with them now?" He asked me. I shrugged and looked down at the ground. What could I do with them?

I then noticed that instead of two pairs of shoes, there was three, one pair belonging to Grover.

"Hey Grover, how come your wearing shoes?"

"You don't expect me walking around with my hooves on display do you?"

"No I mean how come they are not falling off?"

"Foam is a wonderful thing." I looked down at the shoes in my hands thoughtfully.

"Would you like these instead?"

"But Luke gave them to you!" I shrugged my shoulder, not really bothered by this.

"It's not like I'm gonna be able to use them anyway." Grover looked at me with wide eyes.

"Are you sure?" I nodded and pushed the shoes into his hands.

"Go ahead and take them. They might come in handy."

Grover smiled excitedly at me and took the shoes off me without any further her question.

"That was a very honourable thing you did Sophia." I smiled at Chiron's praise but kept my eyes on Grover as Will helped him with the shoes.

"Not really. I just thought that if I can't use them, then someone might as well. It's just lucky that they fit him." I sighed then looked up at Chiron with sad eyes. "I suppose we should get going."

"That's probably a good idea." I gave him a quick one armed hug and went to make my way down the hill where Will was helping Grover back down to earth. While Chiron and I had been speaking, Grover had managed to turn the shoes on, and now he was d angling upside down waving his arms wildly. I chuckled at the sight.

"Oh, Sophia," I looked back to Chiron when he had called me back. "I forgot to give this to you."

He handed me a black ball point pen like the ones you can get by cash registers. It probably cost about thirty cents, maybe less.

"Um...Thank you?" I wasn't sure how I could respond to something like this. I'm sure Chiron meant well, but a pen?

"It's from your father." I nodded my head slowly. Slightly upset that my father had decided to give me such a lame gift. Okay, that made me sound like a spoilt brat. But come on! Annabeth and Luke both got really cool gifts from their parents, and all I got was a stinking pen.

"Tell him I said thanks." Chiron ginned at me like a five year old would when they got given the last cookie from their parents.

"I should probably tell you how to use it, shouldn't I?"

"I'm pretty sure I know how to use a pen Chiron. Don't worry, I'll make sure I won't stab myself with it"

Chiron ignored my words and indicated for me to step away from him.

"Take the lid off." I scrunched my eyebrows together in confusion, but listened to him either way.

When I had taken the lid of the pen off, I watched in wonder as it slowly morphed into the 3 foot long sword I remembered from the museum. Its blade was made from some kind of bronze that let off an unnatural sort of glow. The hilt itself was made from soften leather, that fit my hand comfortably. The sword didn't feel heavy like the ones in the armoury, or to light. It wasn't that big or too small. It felt natural. Like it had been made just for me, I knew this sword was the one. And I wasn't about to let it out of my sight.

"Wow." My voice was no louder than a whisper. For some reason I didn't want to spoil this moment, it seemed to me that when if everything went back to normal I would lose this beautiful creation in my hand. I didn't want that to happen.

"What do you think?" I jumped at the sound of Chiron's voice. I had completely forgotten that he was even standing there.

"I perfect. It feels perfect."

"That's a relief. Your father had given it to me to give to you. I didn't know who you were at the time, but now I'm one hundred percent certain that this was meant for you."

"I'm glad. I was worried I wouldn't find a weapon in time. But at least know Will and Grover don't have to be the only ones who can fight if it comes down to it."

"Let us all hope that the fates will be kind to you and bring you home safely." I laughed quietly without any humour.

"For some reason, I don't think the fates will be kind to me at all knowing my luck." Chiron put a comforting hand on my shoulder.

"But we can always hope. Now, before I send you off, I should probably tell you the name of your sword."

"It has a name?" He nodded at me.

"Most swords have names. Yours has a rather unique name, as most people name their blades after to bring fear to their enemy's eyes. Which to be honest, I find pointless. If you want to bring fear to your enemy's eyes, it would probably be a good idea to learn how to use a sword properly."

"Weren't you the one who said 'Name's have power'?" He laughed his big booming laugh that I had only heard a few times at Yancy and nodded.

"Yes I suppose I did. And never forget that Sophia. Any the name. Your swords name is Anaklusmos."

"Riptide," I translated without a problem, something I found I had been doing quite often. "Fitting."

"It is made of celestial bronze. Quite a rare metal, but is strongest against creatures from the underworld. But remember, it will not and cannot harm mortals. It will just pass straight through them."

"Why's that?"

"The mist won't allow it."

"What's mist got to do with it?" Chiron looked at me in surprise.

"But surely, I must have mentioned it to at least once." I thought back to when I first came here, trying to remember Chiron telling me anything about the mist.

"You might have. But I can't really remember." Chiron hung his head and sighed tiredly.

"The mist hides our world from the mortal one. I must have told you that." I shrugged my shoulders, not really remembering Chiron telling me anything about the mist. And even if he had, I seriously don't remember it. But give me a break. It had been a long week, it's no surprise I don't remember it.

"We don't have enough time to discuss the properties of the mist, there are only so many hours of daylight and you have a bus to catch. Now, quickly touch the tip of your sword with the pen lid and get down to the mini bus." I did as I was told and watched as the bronze sword shrunk back down into a pen.

"I'll see you soon then Chiron. Thanks for the help and the new sword." He waved off my thanks with a lazy flick of his hand.

"Don't worry, it's part of my job."

I waved good bye to him and walked down the hill towards one of the white mini busses that the camp supplied, with Argus following closely behind.

"Sophia! I almost forgot," I spun around to face Chiron expectantly. "If you lose your pen, do not fret. Just fait a few minutes then check your pocket. It will always come back to you." I nodded once at him, then ran the rest of the way towards the bus where I could see Grover and Will getting to the back of the bus, while Argus was settling himself into the driver's seat.

"Is everything alright? What did Chiron want?" Grover asked me when I had settled down next to him.

"He just wanted to give me this." I showed them both my new pen and watched as their faces turned from holding confusion to looking like Christmas had come early.

"Congratulations seaweed brain. You finally found a weapon that likes you."

I gave Will my best glare when he used the nickname he had given me.

"Don't call me that."

"What's wrong with seaweed brain? I think it suits you." I growled at him, trying to sound threatening.

"Well I don't think it does." He laughed at my lame comeback.

"I think a lot of people would agree with me."

"I hope you realize that means I'll have to come up with something for you."

"Good luck with that." I glared at the back of his head when he turned to look out of the window.

"Just you wait pretty boy, I'll get back at you eventually." He snapped his head around to glare at me.

"Really? That's the best you've got?"

"Do you realize how hard it is to come up with something for you off the top of my head?" He shook his head and turned back to look outside the window. Sighing in frustration I turned my head to look out of the window on my side of the bus. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw an eye at the bottom of Argus neck wink at me.

I slapped Grover on his leg as I felt him shaking with laughter besides me.

"Shut up." This only made him laugh harder.

I leant my head against the window and closed my eyes. I might as well get some sleep if we're going to be travelling for gods know how long.

* * *

><p>Grover, Will and I stood at under a lone bus shelter waiting for the bus that would take us to L.A. If everything went as planned, we'd get there in no time and then we'd have plenty of time left to find the Underworld.<p>

Other than us, there we're only ten people at the bus stop. A family of five, a couple that was probably newlyweds and three old ladies. I tried to stay as far away from them as possible, I didn't like the looks they were sending out way. It was like we were something to eat.

I dried my hands on my jeans as I walked out of the toilet. I had refused to go anywhere without at least going to the bathroom first. As I made my way over to where Will and Grover were standing, when a poster stuck to a telephone post caught my eye. It was a missing poster, asking people to call if they saw the girl whose picture had been stuck on the bottom of the paper.

It had become washed out from the rain, but I could recognize that picture anywhere. It was me the day before I had left for Yancy after Christmas, smiling gleefully at the camera, or rather the person taking it. My mom had taken it, claiming that you could never have too many photos to remind us of the good times.

I felt someone come up to stand behind me.

"What is he trying to pull off here?"

"I don't know," I heard Grover say "But I don't think I want to find out."

He threw his arm over my shoulders and guided me back towards the bus shelter where Will was looking on at us in curiosity.

"Everything okay?" I nodded my head at him and sat down on the small bench next to the bus shelter, planning to wait for the bus in silence.

Unfortunately that plan only lasted for all of ten seconds. Mine and Will's ADHD kicked in so we had ended up pacing up and down the entire length of the bus stop, which didn't help all that much. After a long agonizing hour, the bus finally showed up, causing the three of us too express our joy. After showing the bus driver our tickets, we made our way to the back of the bus, where we had planned to sit in peace for the entire journey.

"So how long do we have to sit here?" Will asked Grover as we were placing our bags in the overhead compartments.

"Not sure, but there are meant to be a few stops along the way."

"Great, just what we need. More delays." Hearing my words, Will shot me a look that clearly said stop complaining and sit down. Since I didn't want to find out what a son of Apollo looked like when he was angry, I sat down.

Leaning my head against the window, I let my eyes glance over the other passengers, instinctively looking for any dangers. I watched in amusement as the mother and father wrestled with their two twin boys, trying to get them to sit down long enough to be able to get their seat belts on. I laughed quietly as the father kept getting kicked in the face by his son while the grandmother just sat, and watched with interest as he got beaten up by his young son.

I watched as the young couple sat cuddled up against each other with a smile. They looked perfectly content to just ignore the world around them and just concentrate on each other. I noticed that the woman's eyes were locked on the family that sat a few seats up from them, she seemed to be concentrating on the children more than the parents and grandmother. I figured that she wanted children quite badly and my suspicions were only confirmed when she leaned up and whispered into her partners ear. Whatever she had said turned him into a stuttering mess as he tried to come up with an answer to whatever she had said.

I quickly turned my attention towards the front of the bus, where the three old ladies had settled themselves. Something seemed off about them, but I couldn't figure it out. They seemed normal enough though, what with them knitting and gossiping quietly amongst themselves. It was just the fact that they had decide to sit on opposite sides of the isle, neither of them where sitting next to each other, two where opposite one another while the third sat behind them. I ignored it, but passed it off as them just wanting more leg room.

* * *

><p>We had been travelling for about three hours when I finally realized something was wrong. As we left the highway and moved onto a quieter route everything seemed to get darker. Looking outside I noticed that there were only a few clouds in the sky so it couldn't have been that, and looking at the watch on Wills wrist I saw it had just gone two o'clock, so it wasn't because it was getting late.<p>

Looking back outside I realized that it was just as bright as it had been minutes ago, it was the bus itself that was getting dark. I looked around and watched at the three women placed their legs in the aisle, effectively blocking anyone from passing them.

"Grover what is it?" I hadn't even realized Grover had made a noise. I looked over at him and saw that he had gone a deathly white, his eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his head at any moment. His hands gripped the leather seats of the bus so tightly, that his knuckles had become white from the strain.

"Sophia, please tell me I'm not seeing what I think I'm seeing." I looked at him in confusion, but followed his eyesight towards the old women. I froze when I realized what he was saying.

"Grover that made no sense, what are you talking about?" I realized that Will would probably have no idea what was going on and was going to be in extreme danger if he wasn't told soon.

"Will, is your bow nearby?"

"Yes, why?" From the corner of my eye I could see him looking at me, his eyebrows scrunching up in confusion.

"Because, an old friend of ours from school has decided to pay us a visit."

"I don't understand. What's going on."

"Mrs. Dodds."

"Who?"

"Put it this way. She tried to kill me, but I ended up killing her."

"What the heck have you been up to before you got to camp?" Before I got a chance to answer Grover cut across me, his voice full of panic.

"Now's not the time to trade life stories!" Will and I turned our attention back at Grover who had gone completely ridged with fear.

"Okay so what are they?"

"Kindly ones." Now it was Wills turn to freeze whereas I just looked between them in confusion.

"What are they?" Will looked back down towards where Mrs. Dodds sat with her friends, then looked back at me and whispered,

"Furies." As if rehearsed the three women snapped their head in our direction and grinned at us, showing all of their teeth, just as a predator would do when staring down its prey. I gulped.

"So what do we do?"

"We have to get off here obviously." Will said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"And just how do you expect us to do that? I don't think they'll be letting us off soon." I watched Will visibly deflate.

"Didn't think about that."

I looked around the bus hopping to find something that would help us.

"I have an idea." They looked at me expectantly.

"What is it?" Grover asked. I stood up and held up my hands to stop them from protesting.

"Just be ready."

I made my way down the bus aisle, ignoring the furious whispers telling me to come back. I made it look as though I was walking towards the small toilet near the middle of the bus, near the family of five who were chatting in quite whispers. I felt sorry for them, their holiday was about to become a nightmare.

When I was two seats away from the toilet, I reached out and hit the emergency break.

The bus came to a screeching halt which made me lose my balance and caused me to land in the poor father's lap.

"Sorry 'bout that folks," I heard the driver call from the front.

I motioned for Grover and Will to make their way closer to the front where the Furies were picking themselves up.

They moved as quickly as they could toward the bottom of the bus, before crouching down behind some empty seats.

I patted the still stunned father on the shoulder before making my way towards them. My plan failed when Mrs. Dodds and her pals managed to get to their feet. Thinking quickly, I dove behind some seats and waited.

I watched with baited breath as they made their way to the back where Will, Grover and I had been sat not moments before. Thinking quickly, I moved from my hiding place and walked quickly down the rest of the bus.

"Wait for my signal." I whispered to Will and Grover as I passed. This was going to be the death of us, I just knew it.

I stopped by the driver's seat and smiled as best as I could at the driver.

"Hi." He looked up at me with caution before looking back at the road.

"You shouldn't be standing here miss." I shrugged indifferently.

"There are a lot of thing I shouldn't do, but I still do them. Like this for example."

Without hesitating, I grabbed the driving wheel and jerked it violently to the right. The bus swerved dangerously towards the edge of the road before becoming straight again as the driver took control of the wheel once more.

"Hey! What do you think your doing?" I sighed in frustration, okay time for plan B.

"Sorry 'bout this," With that, I punched the driver as best as I could in the face. He let go of the wheel his hands going up to cradle a bleeding nose. Grabbing the steering wheel once more and turned in roughly in my direction.

The bus veered off the road and made its way towards the trees that marked the edge of a forest. Before the driver could do anything, the bus crashed violently into a tree, throwing everyone forward. If I hadn't been clutching the wheel so tightly, I would have gone straight through the windscreen.

Looking out the window, I noticed smoke had started to rise out of the engine. _'Well that can't be good.' _I thought

"Everyone off the bus!" My voice seemed to snap people out of the daze they had been thrown into when the bus had crashed into the tree, and started to make their way shakily off the bus, the bus driver included. Noticing that neither Will nor Grover had gone passed I looked up the bus aisle in a panic.

Covering my mouth to stop myself from screaming, I made my way to where Mrs. Dodds and her friends, now in their true form where holding Will and Grover by their shirts. Mrs. Dodds stood slightly behind her pals with a whip, made entirely out of fire uncoiled in her hand.

"Where are they?"

"We don't know what you're talking about." Will choked out struggling against the clawed hand that held him suspended in air, Mrs. Dodds growled in frustration and snapped her whip threateningly outwards.

"Don't lie. Tell us, where are they?"

"I'm telling you we don't know."

"Oh, so unwise." She raised her whip upwards preparing to strike.

Everything seemed to slow down then, I had moved into action before she had even lifted the whip entirely. I had uncapped my sword and was quickly advancing towards her ready to strike. Just as she was about to strike Will, my sword swung downwards, quickly beheading her. Just as she had down in the museum, she exploded into gold dust.

Her friends turned to face me, dropping Will and Grover in the process.

"You'll pay for that." The one holding Will growled. She lunged for me, claws outstretched. I raised my sword, preparing to fight when an arrow imbedded itself in her skull. Like Mrs. Dodds, she went down in a shower of dust.

The final one screamed in anguish as she watched her friends collapse in a pile of dust.

"Nooooo!" She screamed and turned towards Will who was now loading an arrow preparing to strike. Thinking of helping him, I kicked her in the back as she lunged for Will which sent her falling downward onto Will arrow, which was still in place on his bow.

Will looked down in disgust as the final amount of dust settled on him.

"Thanks," He glared up at me. I shrugged

"Just trying to help," I suddenly felt an incredible amount of heat coming from my side. Looking down I realized that Mrs. Dodds, flaming whip hadn't disintegrated with her. Instead it had landed on the bus seats next to us and had slowly begun to set the seat on fire.

"Guys we gotta move before it spreads even further. " I heard Grover say. Looking back down at them I quickly helped them to their feet and we moved towards the bus exit, the fire had already begun to spread quickly.

Stepping out of the bus, the passengers and bus driver stared at us in horror. I'm not sure what they had seen, but it couldn't have been good. I looked back at the bus and watched as it was quickly illuminated by the flames.

Looking towards the tree line, I quickly made my discussion. Grabbing Will and Grover by the elbows I led them into the trees, planning on getting as far away as possible from the bus before it exploded.

"What are we going to do now?" I heard Grover ask.

"We'll have to continue o foot."

"But all of our supplies were on the bus." As if to emphasize Will's statement, an explosion sounded behind us.

"We'll have to manage on our own. C'mon." Leading the way I made my way into the forest. I soon realized that they weren't following me and turned back to face them. "Is something wrong?"

"All our money was on that bus. All our food, all my tin cans."

"We'll have to manage on our own." Will looked at Grover in sympathy. "Knowing our luck, any monsters nearby would have learned that we're here and will come looking for us. We have to keep moving."

Grover finally nodded in agreement and made his way towards me, with Will following behind. I turned and continued my way into the forest. If anything, I was more determined now to finish this quest, than I had been before. Not even the Gods could stop me now.

* * *

><p><strong>I know the fight scene was quite short and really quick, so I'm sorry about that. I didn't know how to word it properly but I'll eventually re-write it again. And I'd like to say sorry for the long wait, I honestly don't have an excuse for taking ages to upload, I'll try to be quicker with the next one. <strong>


	12. Say Cheese!

**I Don't Own Percy Jackson**

* * *

><p>It felt like we had been walking for days, but in reality it had only been a few hours. The sun had begun to set, casting an orange glow over the forest.<p>

"Maybe we should stay here for the night." I heard Grover suggest.

I scanned the small clearing that we had just entered, looking for any signs of danger that might have been lurking behind the trees that surrounded us. Satisfied with what I found, I let myself relax against a fallen tree. It looked as though a group of teenagers had thrown a party here, probably celebrating the start of summer vacation.

A burnt out fire pit sat in the middle of the small clearing and litter had been scattered around the place. Empty beer cans and food rappers had been left behind, for whatever animals were hiding out here to find.

"This is disgusting." I nodded in agreement at Grover's words. It was sad to see that people could be so blind at what they were doing to the environment.

I looked up at Will, wondering why he had been so quiet. He was looking around at the mess deep in thought.

"You okay there pretty boy?" Will snapped his head in my direction as though he had forgotten I was even there.

"I was just thinking."  
>"About?"<p>

"If people have been here before, wouldn't that mean that they'd have to have gotten here by a road or a path?"

Grover and I turned to face each other with wide eyes. How had we missed that? I mean, only idiots would have a party in the middle of nowhere right? So there had to be a way to get back to civilisation one way or another. And we'd need to find food and water at some point.

"Then what are we waiting for?" I asked eagerly.

By the time we had found a road, the sun had set completely and now the moon was already growing in height.

Opposite us were a bunch of closed down road side shops, that looked as though no one had been near them in years. The only place that was still open was a garden shop. It's bright green neon sign was the only source of light on this road, besides the moon and stars of course.

To me, the green neon sign read, 'Yatnu Sme Agrdne Mengo Pomrimue'

"What the heck does that sign say?"

"How the heck am I meant to know?" I was strange being someone else who was dyslexic. When I was in school, I was never around people who had the same troubles as I did. And then at camp, we mainly read in Ancient Greek so we never had trouble reading.

"Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium. Shall we have a look?"

I looked at Will who shrugged at me as an answer.

"Might as well."

The three of us quickly walked the short distance towards the emporium, looking out for any cars that might decide to appear on the deserted road.

My stomach growled loudly at the smell of food cooking coming from the shop. We hadn't eaten since breakfast as we had planned to ration our food supply so we wouldn't run out so soon, and to make sure that we had stuff left in case we ever managed to get lost in the wilderness with no way to find a road.

Will reached out and knocked three times on the old, rotting door. We waited in silence, hoping that whoever was behind this door would be welcoming.

The clicking of a lock being unlocked could be heard on the other side of the door. We waited as the door creaked open. A tall women stood next to the door, still holding onto the handle as though she was about to close it on us. She was covered from head to toe in black silk. The only piece of skin you could see, were her sickly white hands. Dark green had been painted on her claw like nails.

"Can I help you?" Her voice was as soft as velvet, it sent shivers down my spine just listening to her. "Is everything alright?"

At her question I realized that none of us had actually answered her question, but what could we say?

"Ummm, well... the thing is..." I was saved from my pathetic attempts to answer her, by Will's quick thinking.

"We got lost. We were camping in the forest with our parents and got separated, we were hoping if we could find some food here. We haven't eaten in a while, and we don't know how long it could be before we found of parents again."

The women opened the door wider and motioned with her clawed hand for us to enter her shop.

"Please come in, I just made dinner."

We walked into the small shop and had froze in shock. The place was full of different types of statues, each frozen in different stages of horror. I'll admit, they were really life like, but the looks of sheer horror on their faces just took away any amount of beauty they would have had.

"Uhhh... Nice statues." Grover forced out.

"Thank you my dear," I turned to look at the women to see why she hadn't moved from her place behind us, and found that she was currently busy re-locking the door. "They are my pride and joy, but I can never seem to get their face right. It's always the faces."

She moved round to face us and motioned with her hand again, for us to follow her. Both Will and I shared looks of discomfort, while Grover had become interested in a statue of a satyr.

"He looks like Uncle Ferdinand." He mumbled.

I tugged on his arm and dragged him along with us. Maybe it was from all the monster attacks I had seen, but I didn't like the idea of leaving Grover out here alone.

We followed the women into the back rooms, while trying to stay as far away from these creepy statues of children, animals and other weird creatures she had decided to make.

"I am Aunty Em," The women's velvet voice said from in front of us. "Just in case you hadn't figured it out. Here, why don't you sit down, and I will get you some food."

She pointed to a round lawn table, which had four wooden chair placed around it. We sat down and quickly made our selves comfortable, as we waited for Aunty Em to bring us our food.

Before she had even entered the room, we were hit by the powerful smell of freshly cooked burgers.

"Here we go. Three cheese burgers." When she put Grover's burger in front of him, he visibly recoiled, his skin getting whiter than it had been on the bus. "Are you all right my dear?"

"I-I'm a vegetarian."

"Oh, well there's fries as well so you can eat them instead."

Grover forced a smile at her and thanked her for the food. Will and I were already halfway through our burgers and fries already, since the only thing the camp served was healthy food, it was nice to be able to eat something different.

Aunty Em sat across from us, placing her hands underneath her chin, watching us. I swallowed the mouthful of food I had in my mouth and spoke.

"Aren't you eating?"

"I am not hungry. Now tell me, how did you manage to lose your parents." I could feel her looking at us through her veil, it felt uncomfortable when you knew someone was looking at you, but you weren't able to see their faces.

"Umm..." How hard was it to come up with something to say? Luckily Will figured that I was stuck and answered for me

"We were exploring, and got too far from the campsite. We tried to go back, but ended up doing a complete circle and eventually found your shop."

"Would you like to call for help?" Aunty Em asked

"No, no it's fine. We were told to follow the road if anything happened." This time it was Grover who answered, I looked over at him. He was fiddling with a napkin and was stuffing pieces of it into his mouth when ever Aunty Em wasn't looking at him. I kicked him under the table and glared at him in warning. He ignored me and continued to stuff the napkin into his mouth.

He stopped suddenly and cocked his head to the side, as though listening for something.

"Do you hear hissing?" I stopped eating and listened as hard as I could. I didn't hear anything.

"You're probably imagining it my dear. You have had a tiring day after all." Aunty Em's voice consoled.

"Yeah probably," Even as he said this I could tell he didn't believe that for one second.

Aunty Em then turned her attention back to me.

"You're eyes are so beautiful my dear. So blue, they remind me of the sea." I gave her half a smile and continued to eat the last bits of my dinner. "And your hair, it's so dark. It reminds me of a young gentleman I knew when I was barely older than you are now."

She then turned to look at Will, her cheek resting in the palm of her hand.

"And you, you hair looks as though it has been touched by a ray of sunlight. And your eyes remind of a cloudless sky on a hot summer's day." Will laughed uncomfortably, but I could understand why. She was pointing out qualities that separated us from our extended family, my hair and eyes were unique only to me and my father. Just as Will's hair and eyes were unique to him and his father. Even at Camp you could see differences between Will and his siblings, different shades of blondes and brunets. I never got the chance to see if the eye colour was common, but if I had to guess I'd say that it wasn't.

"Thank you. People say I could be my dad's twin." So I was right, Will and his dad must look incredibly similar. Aunty Em nodded her head serenely and looked back at me, leaning back in her chair.

"That man I once knew, he was handsome. There's no denying that, and I was lucky enough to be so beautiful that he decided to court me. Unfortunately, it didn't end as well as I would have liked."

"What happened?" I asked genuinely curious.

"He left."

He sat in an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes, none of us moving.

"Let me take you plates." She grabbed our plates, Grover's was still untouched and left into the back room. As soon as she had left, Grover turned to me instantly.

"We should leave."

"Grover that's rude." Will snapped. "She helped us, you can't expect us to leave without even saying thank you."

"You don't understand,-"

"Grover we're staying, that's final."

Grover shrank back in his seat at my raised voice. I only ever shouted when I was really angry, and now was no exception. He didn't think we would leave this poor old lady right now did he?

"Is everything alright? I heard raised voices."

"Everything's fine," I snapped at Aunty Em. "Don't worry 'bout it."

She nodded and glided back over to us, this time preferring to stand.

"If it's not too much to ask, would you three mind doing a favour for me?"

Will and I nodded enthusiastically as our answer

"Great, I would like to make statues of the three of you together. Since it is so hard to come across children as nice as you are."

She led us back into the main room, and walked us over to a garden setting. She stood us in the position's she wanted us in. She had a bit of trouble with Grover as he wouldn't stop moving around nervously.

"Relax dear, I will only be a second. I just want to take a picture of the three of you together."

After she was satisfied with what she wanted she moved away from us.

"Now if you would just stay where you are, I'll be able to take your picture. I won't be long, just keep looking at me."

I could see Grover out of the corner of my eye, staring intently at the statue of the satyr.

"Just hold still." Aunty Em raised her hands up towards her headscarf and veil. Something seemed to click in my head, making me realize something very important.

"Where's your camera?" She ignored my question and began to work on un-wrapping her headscarf. I then realized I could hear hissing coming from somewhere, had that been what Grover had meant?

Several things happened in that moment. Grover yelled out,

"That is Uncle Ferdinand!" While Will pushed Grover to the ground, grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me to hide behind a statue, just as Aunty Em unravelled her scarf. The hissing was louder now, and for some strange reason I thought it sounded a lot like snakes.

"Come now dears, there's no need to hide. Just take one look."

I looked at Will in fear, hoping he'd tell me what was going on.

"You're telling me you don't know who that is?" I shook my head at him, no. "Think about it. She's completely covered, this place is full of scared statues and her name is Aunty Em."

I thought hard about it, putting together the pieces. Em, Em. M. Medusa. Of course how could I have been so stupid!

"What we're going to do?" Then I thought of something. Grover! Where was he? I looked around hopping to see him somewhere. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw his brown, curly hair sticking out from where he was hiding behind what used to be two children.

"Don't look her in the eye that's a start."

"Can't you shot her or something?" He looked at me incredulously.

"I'm an archer! I need to be able to see where I'm shooting."

"I forgot about that."

"Obviously. Your such a seaweed brain at times, you know that don't you?"

"Where is your bow anyway?" He held up his wrist where a bracelet woven from gold lay. "Oh."

I froze when I heard shuffling from beside Will, please don't say that's her. I stifled a scream when Grover came tumbling from around the corner.

"Don't do that!" Will shouted.

"Sorry, sorry."

I motioned with my hand to get them to shut up. I was trying to hear if she was near. For a while it was quiet, but then I could hear soft footsteps coming from my side of the statue.

"Move," I pushed Will into Grover to get them moving. We moved as fast as we could to get away from her. Keeping our heads down, we moved to the other side of the room, hiding behind an old couple sitting on a stone bench.

"We've got to split up." I said, I held up my hands stopping any protests that were about to be sent my way. "We have to confuse her."

They finally agreed and left in opposite direction.

"Where are you, daughter of Poseidon? Come out, I won't hurt you."

I looked around, hoping to find something that could help me kill her. A glass ball caught my eye, hadn't Perseus killed Medusa the first time around my looking into her reflection on his shield? But how would I get to it without her spotting me?

It seemed that I didn't have to worry about reaching the ball in time, because as I was trying to figure out what to do Medusa had managed to sniff me out. Grover must have seen this, because know he was flying above Medusa his shoes flapping wildly to keep him airborne, with his eyes closed and swing a plastic tree branch in circles above his head.

"Stay away from her!"

While Medusa was busy with the flying goat, I quickly grabbed the ball and hid once again. Let's hope this works. Quickly uncapping my sword, I held up the ball so I would be able to see Medusa. At the moment, was busy trying to bring Grover down by grabbing his feet. Unfortunately, her plan was working. I only hopped that he would be able to keep airborne long enough for me to kill her. Sword at the ready, I began to walk backwards towards her. Just as long as she didn't notice me I'd be fine.

But since I seemed to have the worst luck possible, of course she turned around. Realizing what I was about to do, she changed direction and made her way to me, her claws outstretched. Taking a deep breath I closed my eyes, spinning around I swung my sword upwards towards her head.

A thump indicated that either I had killed her, or Grover had managed to fall down. Hearing footsteps coming from my right, I swung my sword around to kill whoever was advancing. A hand gripped my wrist before I could do some real damage and a familiar voice spoke from in front of me.

"It's me, Will. You can open your eyes now." Opening my eyes, I saw the familiar gold monster dust and a jacket thrown carefully over something a few centimetres away from my feet.

"You beheaded her." Will explained. I nodded, still slightly dazed from the experience. "Grover it's safe not, you can stop swinging that branch."

Realizing that there was no more danger, Grover floated to the ground. Looking around he spotted the jacket covering Medusa's head.

"Isn't that my jacket?" Will just shrugged at him. "Why did you use my jacket?"

"I had to use something to cover her didn't I?" To be honest I hadn't even realized Grover had taken his jacket off.

"Guy's let's just see what's here we can use, maybe she's got some money."

After looking around the place we found fifty dollars about ten drachma in the cash register and some slips for Hermes Overnight Express. Looking at the slips, I had a sudden thought.

"Wait here guys," I told them.

I made my out to the back room where I had seen Medusa bring our food from and looked around. I was standing in a very small kitchen, with only enough room for one person to stand in. I made my way to the small door at the end of the room, hoping to find what I needed in there.

Entering I found myself in Medusa's storage room. Deciding to snoop around, I found a book which held all of her sales from the beginning of the year, mainly to Hades. Looking at the address, I learnt that we had to find somewhere called DOA Studios. Ripping out the page, I stuffed the paper into my jean's back pocket.

Grabbing a box that would be big enough for what I wanted to do, I made my was back out to the main room.

"Hey, what's wi-"

"Where's Olympus?" I cut across Grover.

"600th floor Empire State Building, why?" Deciding not to mention that there was no 600th floor because after everything that had happened to me, I wouldn't have been surprised if they told me that pigs could fly

Grapping Medusa's head I stuffed it into the box before grabbing a pen. Taking out one of the slips I wrote

_The Gods_

_Olympus_

_600__th__ Floor Empire State Building_

_New York_

_NY_

_Hope you have a wonderful day, Sophia Jackson xx_

Dropping a few drachma into the small pouch that came with the slip, I placed in on top of Medusa's head. Almost instantly, the box vanished.

"Where'd you send it to?" Will asked

"Olympus." Both Will's and Grover's eye's looked as though they were about to pop out of their skulls. I stalked over to the door, not wanting to stay in the shop any longer than necessary.

* * *

><p>Will and I sat by the small campfire we had managed to get going from dry twigs and leaves we had gathered from the forest floor, while Grover was snoring from where he lay asleep up against. We had decided to head back to the clearing we had found before finding Medusa, we figured it was probably safer for us as the rubbish would mask Will and I's scents from any monster's that were in the area.<p>

"Tell me something about yourself," I said.

"What?" Will asked.

"I figure that since you know more about me, than I know about you, that it was only fair that you tell me about you."

"What do you want to know?" I shrugged, not really caring what he told me as long as he said something. I hated sitting in silence.

"Well my favourite colour is Blue. I was born on the 3 of October and I can play the guitar and piano." I laughed at his words, that wasn't what I had meant by asking him to tell me more about him, but oh well.

"I meant about your past, how did you get to camp?"

"Oh!" I laughed again

"And you call me the seaweed brain." He bumped my shoulder with his.

"There's not much to say really. My mom was a drug addict so we never had any money left after she bought whatever the heck she took. Eventually the police found her and now's she's in jail. I ended up in an orphanage for about a week or so before Chiron found me and brought me to Camp. I was ten at the time."

"And your twelve now right?" He nodded. "Wow, sorry you had to go through that." I hadn't realized how well off I had been compared to most. I had spent so much time complaining about Smelly Gabe that I hadn't even been bothered to see that there was so much more people whose lives were worst than mine.

"Don't worry about it, what about you?"

"My mom married this disgusting man when I was five. He smelled worse than the sewers, and gambled away any money we had left after buying food and paid the bills, which wasn't that much anyway. I could never figure out why she married him, but now I know. She did it to keep me safe." I brought my knees up and rested my chin on them.

"At least your mom loved you." I looked at him in shook.

"You don't know that she didn't, she could've loved you. You just never saw it because of all the drugs."

"Maybe. But I'm not so sure." I threw my arm over his shoulder and gave him a one armed hug, hoping to comfort him as much as possible. I decided to change the topic, hopping to lighten the mood a bit.

"When did you father claim you?" He thought for a moment before laughing lightly.

"When I had gotten to Camp, I was very ill. My mom and I never had enough food in the house for a decent meal so I was always hungry. And I wasn't at the orphanage long enough to have gotten enough food to be able to call myself healthy. Chiron was in the middle of giving me the camp tour when we got to the archery range. My older brother David, was having trouble with this bow, it wasn't doing what he wanted it to. So he ended up throwing it to the ground in frustration and just stalked right out of the range." I smiled at the thought of a child of Apollo having trouble firing a single arrow.

"That must have been interesting to see." Will nodded, smiling as well at the memory.

"It was, trust me. Well anyway, something about this bow seemed to draw me in, so ignoring Chiron's protests, I walked right up the bow and picked it up. As soon as I did, it seemed to wake up, if that makes any sense. It felt alive in my hands. While I was admiring the bow, David had cooled off and had decided that he wanted to try the bow again, so when he entered the archery range again. You can imagine how surprised and angry he was at seeing the newbie with his bow in his hands. He started to get angry with me and demanded it back, but for some reason I couldn't. A part of me didn't want to give up the bow. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?" I nodded.

"I felt the same way when I held my sword. It felt like it was made for me, and I wasn't planning on giving it up anytime soon."

"That's what I felt with the bow!"

"Maybe that's how people know when they've found the right weapon for them."

"Maybe. But back to the story. After a while David had managed to draw a crowd. No one had seen a child of Apollo so angry before, because we're normally so composed. Eventually David shouted at me that I wouldn't be able to fire an arrow with the bow in my hand even with Apollo's help. At the time I didn't realize why I felt so angry at his words, so I just grabbed and arrow from a nearby quiver and fired. Can you guess what happened next?"

"The arrow hit the target dead centre, so David threw a fit and stalked off?"

"You took the words right out of my mouth. So yeah, after David walked off, everyone was looking above my head. And when I looked up, there was a floating miniature sun."

"Wow, wish I could have seen that."

"Na, you would've wanted to see was the look on David's face when he realized he's have to share a cabin with me. He turned so red I still wonder how his head didn't explode."

We shared a quiet laugh before falling into a comfortable silence.

"Is the bow you have on your wrist the one from your story?" He nodded.

"I haven't let it out of my sight since."

"I still don't know how to thank you for saving my life back in camp. Or for looking after me when I was unconscious."

"You stopped the kindly one from killing me on that bus, I think that's all the thanks I need." I looked at him and smiled once more.

"If you say so, what's the time?" He looked at his watch before replying.

"Just gone half eleven."

I stood up and stretched.

"You better get some sleep, I'll stand watch."

"You sure?" I nodded.

"I'll wake Grover when I get tired, so don't worry."

"You sure? I'd be happy to take first watch." I shook my head.

"No, get some sleep. I won't be able to sleep for a while anyway so It doesn't matter."

He eventually gave in, and settled down to sleep.

"Night seaweed brain.

"Sweet dreams pretty boy."

I made myself comfortable on a low branch. If I was going to be up for half the night, I might as well be comfortable. I looked over at the sleeping bodies of Will and Grover and sighed sadly.

What had I gotten them into?


	13. The Poisonous Chihuahua

**I don't own Percy Jackson**

**A/N Sorry for the wait, but I'm sorry to say this may the last update for a while as my first GCSE is next month so I'll be revising. But I will try and upload as soon as possible. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter.**

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><p>When I had woken up, I had been incredibly surprised to find that there were only two people in the clearing. Me and Will. Grover was nowhere to be seen.<p>

Thinking that he was back at Medusa's lair, probably trying to finding food, I thought it would be a good idea. I just hoped that Will would be fine on his own and since he had his bow, I figured that he would be fine.

Reaching the shop, I was surprised to that it was empty. Where was he if he wasn't here? Was he safe?

Deciding that I shouldn't worry so much, I began to make breakfast. Since there wasn't much to work with, I decided that I would be best if I just gave them toast. Simple, and easy to carry.

I stopped short when I reached the clearing, Grover was back and was sat crossed legged with his back up against a tree while dirty, pink poodle sat on his lap, clearly content with attention it was getting from both Will and Grover.

Noticing I had come back, Grover smiled warmly up at me.

"You're back! Where'd you go?" I pointed behind me with my thumb, still looking at the pink poodle in confusion.

"Uh... I went to get breakfast."

"Great, I'm starving." Will said as he got up from his place beside Grover and made his way over to me.

"This is great, thanks." I just stared at him before turning back to Grover, who was still sat stroking the poodle.

"Why have you got a poodle?"

"Sorry I forgot to introduce you. Sophia meet Rosetta." I looked at the poodle then back at Grover. Did he expect me to say hi to a poodle?

"I'm not going to say hello to that thing if that's what you want." The poodle growled at me.

"Sophia, if I said hello to the poodle, you have to as well." I looked back and forth between Will, Grover and the poodle. Had everyone gone mad while I was gone?

Bending down so I was at Grover's height, I looked at the poodle in uncertainty. I looked back at Grover with big eyes.

"Do I have to? He nodded. I sighed and looked back at the poodle, who had its lips pulled back in a silent growl. "Hello...Rosetta."

Grover had what looked like a one sided conversation with the poodle.

"She say's hi." I stood back up with a sigh.

"A talking dog, should've known." I mumbled under my breath, but of course, Grover had to hear me.

"Sophia! Be nice, Rosetta's gonna help us."

"She's a poodle! How's she gonna help us?"

"Her owner's have put up a $200 reward for whoever finds her, and gets her back home."

"And how do you know this?"

"She told me she read the signs." He shrugged.

"Of course she did."

"Sophia, enough of the sarcasm and just trust Rosetta," I looked over at Will in shock, had he really lost his mind?

"It's a pink, poodle!"

"Really? I hadn't noticed." I glared at Will's use of sarcasm. "Look, we haven't exactly got any other option. We have a better chance of getting anywhere following Rosetta than we do following the road."

I sighed and ran my hand through my hair in frustration, it did make sense, even though it meant following a dog. But it was better than nothing.

"Alright, you want to follow the dog? We'll follow the dog."

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><p>It turned out that following the dog was the better option; we managed to reach the nearest town in city in less than twenty minutes. We found the poodle's owner's house and gladly took the money they offered as a reward.<p>

After fifteen minutes of searching, we managed to find an Amtrak station where we were able to but three tickets for a train to Los Angeles. We had only just had enough money to buy them and were lucky to have money left over for snacks.

I sank into my seat on the train happily; it might not have been first class, but anything was better than walking for hours without stopping. Grover had gone to get us something to drink, so Will and I were alone. I looked at him from where he sat in his aisle chair next to me, he was rolling a beaded, leather necklace between his fingers. I had noticed that everyone at camp wore one, there were always different amounts of beads on them, Will had two.

"Why do people at camp wear them?" Will looked over at me in confusion, before he looked down at the necklace being held between his fingers, almost as though he hadn't even realized he what he was doing.

"It's a reminder. Each bead represents something important that has happened each summer. So the more summer's you've been at camp, the more beads you've got. I've been there two summers, so I've got two."

"So what do yours mean?" Will reached around his neck to unhook the necklace, and held it in his hands so I would be able to see the beads more clearly. He held up one of the brown beads for me to see. It had a horse in a pink prom dress painted on it.

"I never got to see what actually happened, but apparently Annabeth found Chiron in a dress when she went to talk to him in the big house."

"Why was he in a dress?" He shrugged his shoulders, he look just as confused as I was.

"No clue, but I wish I had seen it." I laughed and nodded my head in agreement. I then pointed at the other bead, it had three doves in flight painted on it.

"What about that one" Will's face suddenly turned solemn.

"Two daughters and a son of Aphrodite, triplets, died before reaching camp. I was friends with them."

"If they had never been to camp before, how were you friends with them?"

"They were at the orphanage with me; Chiron didn't exactly notice them when he took me away. He said he was too worried about getting me back to camp, that he didn't even register they were there. Apparently I looked a lot worse than I actually was. They were the only ones who paid any attention to me when I was there."

"Oh. Sorry." He didn't say anything and tied his necklace around his neck. We were quiet for several, uncomfortable minutes, until Will spoke again.

"That's the problem with a lot of demigods. Not many of us live to sixteen." It was a horrible thing to say, but I knew it was the truth. From what I've experienced already, I was a miracle I was still alive. I place my hand on top of his, from where it sat on the arm rest in comfort,

"We'll get back to camp Will. Don't worry."

He looked like he was about to say something, but ended up changing his mind when Grover appeared. Grover handed out bottles of water and a Granola bar to Will and me.

We spent about two day's on the train, and it was during those to day's that I found out something interesting. Besides the fact that demigods weren't exactly good companions on train journeys, a fact made obvious by other travellers, I learnt that police were now looking for me. Well, the three of us, but mainly me. News got around about the bus exploding and the passengers and been more than happy to tell authorities about us.

So as well as trying to find uncle dearest's lightning bolt, we were now on the run as well. Aint that great? I knew this quest wasn't going to be easy, but couldn't we get a little bit of luck? Besides that nothing interesting had happened on the train ride, we were just stuck in a small-ish compartment with no entertainment what so ever.

At the moment the train had to stop at a station in St. Louis to make a few repairs so we were all aloud to stretch our legs, but were all cautioned to be back on the train in three hours as the train waited for no one, then we would be heading to Denver.

After being outvoted by the boys, we had decided to go sightseeing to wait out the hour. We were now stuck in a slowly moving queue underground waiting to climb to the top of the Gateway Arch. As it was late in the day, nearing evening, the queue wasn't very long, but as the elevator only held five people it was taking forever. Eventually, we were led into the elevator with really fat women and her Chihuahua that kept yapping at us for the entire ride up.

It wasn't until about halfway up the Arch, that I realized my mistake. We were rising about two hundred or so feet up into the air, and technically that was a death wish for me. I just hopped that my uncle was in a good mood.

I was actually shaking when we got off at the top, I had to hold onto Will's arm for support.

"You okay?" He asked

"I'm fine. I just realized that I don't like heights." Grover looked over at me incredulously.

"You just realized that?" I glared at him as best as I could through me fear, which really was a pathetic attempt on my part.

"Can you wait until we're back on the ground to mock me? Thanks."

Will led me over to a bench so I could sit down, he told me not to stand up until I had calmed down. After about five minutes I decided I was stable enough to stand. I made my way over to where Grover and Will were standing, looking down at the Mississippi river.

"You know what I just realized?" Will asked us. I shook my head. "On the bus, the kindly one kept screaming 'where are they?' Don't you think that's odd?"

"Not really," Grover answered. "People think Sophia has the bolt, they were obviously looking for both of them."

"You see," Will started "That's where I got confused, since Sophia is the daughter of one of the Big Three, her sent would be stronger than mine or yours, so they must have been able to smell her on the bus." I thought about it and realized he was right. If they were looking for me as well as the bolt, then they would have already have known that I was still there.

"So if it wasn't me they were looking for, then who is?"

"Not who, what," Will answered cryptically.

"What do you mean then?" Grover asked, his brow furrowing in confusion.

"The kindly ones are servants to our friend downstairs right?"

"Way, way downstairs," Grover corrected but nodded for him to continue.

"Then, what if they are looking for something for their master? What if the master bolt wasn't the only thing that's been stolen?"

Grover and I looked at each other wide eyed, was Will right? Could Hades not be the one to blame here?

"So what your saying is, Hades wasn't the one to steal the bolt?"  
>"That's not what I'm saying," Will sighed. "But it is possible."<p>

"So what's been stolen from my uncle then? I can't think of anything important that could be st-"

"His helm," Will interrupted.

"His what?" I asked, had I ignored Chiron's lessons at Yancy, it was starting to look that way, it seemed that I had forgotten everything he taught me.

Will looked around us checking if anybody was standing near enough to listen in on out conversation.

"His helm of darkness."

Oh that helm. If I remembered correctly, the helm made you blend completely into darkness, turning you into a shadow yourself.

"You think someone's stolen it?" Will nodded at Grover's question. "But why?"

"Why did they steal Zeus's bolt? For power." Grover and I looked at each other in wonder, before I broke eye contact with a chuckle.

"Are you sure you're not a son of Athena Pretty Boy?" Will scowled at me.

"Shut up Seaweed Brain," I laughed harder at his pathetic comeback, for some reason the entire situation seemed completely hilarious to me.

After I had calmed down, the three of us managed to settle into a comfortable silence, each of us happy to be able to enjoy the peace, no matter how little time we had to enjoy it.

* * *

><p>We ended up staying at the arch for at least an hour or so, not really caring about what was going on around us and just enjoying the fact that we hadn't been attacked yet. We finally decided to head back to the train when Will looked at his watch and pointed out that we only had an hour left, and to avoid getting lost or leaving to late and missing the train, we decided to leave.<p>

We joined the short queue for the elevator, and I was silently hopping that I would be the last one on as the fat woman with the yapping Chihuahua was standing uncomfortably close to me in the line. As Will stepped into the elevator I was stopped from joining him when an arm was held out in front of me.

"No room miss, you'll have to get the next one." I looked back at the elevator where Will was still only half sitting. I waved my hand at him, silently telling him to sit and that I'd get the next one. I watched as the doors shout slowly and raised my hand in a half wave to Grover and Will. I sighed as the elevator made its decent back down to earth.

I stuck my hands in my back pockets while I waited where I was, I figured that it would be best to stay where I was because knowing my luck, I would have missed the elevator for a second time. I turned around to look at the woman with the Chihuahua when the Chihuahua started to bark like crazy at me.

"Quiet sonny, in a minute," The woman whispered to the dog.

"His name is Sonny?" The women laughed and shook her head.

"No dear, " She then went back to looking at our surroundings.

After a few minutes the dog began growling, and no matter what the woman could do it wouldn't shut up.

"Alright fine, but just this once." She sighed. Bending down she placed the Chihuahua on the ground and stepped away from it. "Just be quick about it, son"

My body froze as the Chihuahua started to grow rapidly. It wasn't until it stopped looking like a Chihuahua that I realized I was in serious trouble, I mean I knew I was in trouble before, but when the Chihuahua's teeth start to turn into fangs that were dripping with saliva and foam starts to appear at the corner's of its mouth and suddenly becomes taller than your waist, you suddenly realize that you should run, although my first clue should have been when the woman called the Chihuahua her son.

It was only when I started to run that I realized I had nowhere to go. Well that and that there was a family who were frozen in fear at big Chihuahua, while their two year old was struggling to get to the dog. I headed towards them and tried to get them to go to the emergency stairs and get out of here, but they were still frozen. I sighed in frustration and looked quickly around the place and noticed that the Chihuahua had now grown to full height and was slowly advancing on me and the family I was still standing next to.

Realizing the danger they were in I quickly ran away from them to get the Chihuahua's attention off of them. I was only when I reached the other end of the viewing platform that I could actually get a chance to look at the monster. It no longer looked like the cute little Chihuahua it had been only moments ago.

Now it's light brown fur had gotten darker so that it now looked red in the right light, it's front half looked like a lion, it's main looked like it had blood dripping from it. Its tail, which kept hitting the ceiling, had a snakes head growing out of the tip of it instead of the usual tuft of fur you'd get with normal animals. An overly large collar hung from his neck, the tag that swung from the collar read:

_CHIMERA_

_VICOUS, RABID, FIRE-BREATHING_

_If found please contact Echidna_

"So, your names Echidna?" I called back to the woman who was watching her pet, son, whatever it was, advance on me.

"My, my arn't you a smart one," Her cackles sent shivers down my spine, and not in a good way. "Now, why don't you tell me where the lightning bolt is, and no one will get hurt."

I groaned in frustration.

"For the last time I don't have it!" Echidna clicked the roof of her mouth with her tounge.

"Wrong answer."

Then, as if rehearsed, the Chimera leaped at me. I had only just managed to leap out of its way before it tried attacking again. I figured it was a good time to get my sword out, but unfortunately for me, the Chimera's snake head tail grabbed it in its jaws and threw it somewhere behind him.

I looked around frantically hopping to find something to distract it, before my eyes once again settled on the family. The little boy had figured out the cute little Chihuahua he had been trying so hard to get to, wasn't exactly cute anymore. And now he was in his mother's arms crying his eyes out.

I looked around for the park ranger and found him cowering against the wall.

"Don't just stand there! Get them outta her!" I yelled at him. That seemed to get him to snap out of whatever spell he had been under, so he quickly started to motion for the family to join him on his side of the room so they'd be able to get to the emergency stairs.

I looked back at the Chimera trying to figure out what to do about it, with my sword gone I was done for.

"Not the brave little hero anymore are you dear? Especially when you've been cornered." Echidna snarled. Her forked tongue flickered out from between her teeth. A faint green smoke seemed to rise off of her skin, it seemed to cover her, changing her. Her skin started to turn green, and scales covered the once smooth skin of the middle-aged woman she had been pretending to be. The whites of her eyes turned yellow and her pupils turned into black slits. Her teeth became fangs, which had become yellow from lack of care.

Because my attention was completely on Echidna, I had completely forgotten about the Chimera. And because of this, its tail had bitten my arm. I screamed in agony.

"Oops, did I forget to tell you that Chimera poison is highly toxic, not many people survive after being bitten."

I clutched my bleeding arm, hoping to stop it bleeding as much as I could, where was Will when I needed him?

"It's such a pity your friends couldn't be here to see you die." Then as if reading my thoughts she continued. "Isn't that blonde one a son of Apollo? He probably would be able to save you if he was here wouldn't he? "

Her taunting was getting on my nerves, but it also fueled my anger. If anything, I was more determined to kill her and her annoying little pet, son, whatever the heck it was.

With all the strength I had, I lifted myself up so I was hanging from a bar that hung above me. Pushing myself back, I kicked myself forward, almost screaming in pain as I could feel my wound start to open even further. I placed my feet on the Chimera's face and pushed it backwards with as much force as I could.

I smirked as I watched the startled Chimera fall backwards; he seemed surprised that a 12 year old girl could push him so far. But even though he was further away from me it still wasn't dead. Dropping down from the bar I tried to think of a plan. What if I did the same thing I did with the Minotaur to the Chimera, except this time I wouldn't be climbing onto its back. It could work, but I'd have to be quick.

I quickly ran back to where Grover, Will and I had been standing not so long ago, pushing Echidna to the ground in the process.

"You little brat!" I heard her scream from somewhere behind me, but I didn't take any notice of her.

When I reached the spot I had been at with my friends not so long ago, I spun around and not a moment too soon. The Chimera was bounding towards me at full speed, its teeth bared smoke rising out of its mouth at an alarming speed. That's when I remembered what the name tag had said. Fire-Breathing. Oh great.

I crouched slightly, preparing myself to jump as quickly as possible, and tried as hard as I could to ignore the fire that would soon be heading my way, no way was I backing down now.

I braced myself as I jumped out of the way of the Chimera, I could feel the heat of the fire it had wanted to BBQ me with as it went hurtling past me out of the window. I sighed in relief when I heard the glass shattering. Pushing myself upwards I walked towards the window and looked down but didn't see anything. My best guess was that it had disintegrated as it hit the floor, either that or it can teleport from one place to another. If it was the second I seriously hopped it was now far, far away from me.

I heard growling from behind me. Turning slowly, I came face to face with a furious Echidna.

"You killed my son!" I had to stop myself from covering my ears from her screeches.

"Well in all fairness, he did try to kill me himself so I think we're even."

So I'll admit, that probably wasn't the best thing to say. But did she have to screech so loudly? She raced towards me, arms stretched outwards.

Now put yourself in my position, death by a crazy mother of all monsters or death by falling about two hundred feet, maybe more who knows. Which would you chose?

In my opinion falling sounded a lot better than be killed by the lizard woman heading towards me. So sending a quick prayer to my father I jumped. My body rapidly falling towards the murky water of the Mississippi river below me.

My body reacted naturally and I was soon falling head first with my hands in front of me, I'm pretty sure I looked like a professional diver to whoever saw me, or maybe a spy jumping out of a tourist attraction with a huge hole in blown out of it.

I sucked in a huge breathe, and sent a one more quick prayer to my father, just in time, as I plunged into the dark, polluted river.


	14. We get a job

**I don't own Percy Jackson**

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><p>The water was cold, I knew that, but for some reason, I couldn't feel it. It was almost as though my body had forgotten how to feel, but I knew that wasn't true. I could feel all the rubbish that people had thrown into the river brushing past me.<p>

Figuring that I wasn't dead yet, and that I probably wouldn't be, I opened my eyes. I'm not sure if it was my imagination or something, but I felt different somehow. I felt, powerful.

My eyesight seemed better now; I could see more in the water than I could on land. I felt stronger too, like I could take on the Athena and Ares cabin all at once. I felt Incredible. Every inch of my body was itching to test this new discovery out, but I managed to hold myself back, only just.

I reached my hand up to feel my arm, hoping that my arm was healed. I really did feel up to listening to Will rant on about me being more careful while he poked and prodded me with who knows what. There were more important things to do than worry about than me being injured.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I felt my skin was as smooth as it had been before I had been bitten. Which I'll admit, wasn't exactly silky smooth like you'd expect a model's skin to be. My eyes suddenly widened. How could I have been so stupid?

My hands flew up to my mouth, trying to stop water from entering my mouth. It took my about a minute to realize that no water had actually entered my mouth. Lowering my hands, I took a deep breath, testing my new discovery. I laughed giddily. I looked down at myself and laughed again. I was bone dry just as I would have been on land. This was so cool.

I stopped laughing, realizing that I was beginning to sound like a mad woman. I shook myself, trying to clear my head. I had to get up to land. I was pretty sure that if I learnt anything more about my water abilities, I probably wouldn't leave the water.

Everything was in chaos above the surface. Police men and women, as well as paramedics and firemen were running around like crazy, trying to be everywhere at once. A crowd had gathered behind a police line, looking up at the Arch with mouths opened wide.

Trying to keep myself hidden, I crept out of the water as quietly as I could. I figured that most people would find it odd if a girl climbed out of a river completely dry. I sighed in relief when no one noticed me.

I began to creep silently behind the crowd, trying not to gain unwanted attention; I really didn't feel like getting a repeat of what happened in the Arch. Unfortunately, my plan to stay unnoticed when Will and Grover spotted me and began waving their arms like crazy, and kept yelling my name at the top of their lungs.

"Sophia!"

Several people turned their heads in their direction, probably wondering why they were being so loud.

"Do you have to be so loud?" I asked once I reached them.

"Sorry." Grover muttered.

"Never mind, let's just get out of here." I tried to get past them but Will stepped in front of me, stopping me from going anywhere.

"Not so fast."

"What now?" I whined

"Are you hurt?" I shook my head.

"No, and I'll explain why once we get back to the train."

Not waiting for an answer, I grabbed them by their shoulders and started dragging them towards the train station.

By the time we had gotten to the train, we were patting heavily. We had sprinted all the way from the Arch and it was lucky that we had as the train left the station five minutes after we had sat down.

When we the station was far behind us, Will and Grover instantly turned to me.

"What happened?" They demanded.

I sighed before explaining everything that had happened from the moment they had left to the time they had found me. When I had finished, Grover was looking at me opened mouthed.

"Wow."

"It's no big deal." I shrugged.

"No big deal!" Grover exclaimed.

Will and I started shushing him, not wanting any unwanted attention from other passengers.

"You defeated a Chimera and escaped Echidna on your own! Of course it's a big deal." I shrugged once again.

"I pretty sure you would have done the same. I just wish I hadn't have lost my sword."

Will looked at me in confusion.

"Didn't you say you sword would come back to your pocket no matter what happened?" I froze.

How did I forget that?

I reached into my pocket, and sure enough, there was my sword in its pen form. I groaned and hit my head on the back of my chair.

"I'm such an idiot."

"Glad you finally see that seaweed brain." Will smirked.

I ignored him as best as I could, and changed the topic.

"So what now?"

Three of us sat in silence before Grover decided to move back to his seat on the other side of the aisle, he had been standing next to Will so he'd be able to talk to us easier.

"I don't know," He said. "I guess we should just see what happens."

After about five minutes of no talking, I decided to close my eyes, I might as well get some sleep, after all we had a long way to go.

* * *

><p><em>I was surrounded by water; everywhere I looked it was the only thing I saw. I could barely see the moon shinning above the surface. <em>

'_The Atlantic', I thought. It had to be. I'm not sure how I knew I was in the Atlantic, but I'm pretty sure it was a child of Poseidon thing._

_The water swirled in front of me, slowly taking form of a woman. I was instantly on guard; I didn't feel like getting killed because of a dream._

"_It is not a dream young one. I bring you a message." The woman spoke, her voice soft and sweet. I instantly relaxed at the sound of it._

"_Who are you?" I asked, my voice seemed to echo in the vast space that was the ocean._

"_One of Lord Poseidon's messengers, he sent me with a message for you." I was instantly alert, my father? What did he want? _

_I nodded for the woman to continue. _

"_Go to the beach in Santa Monica, you must go there before entering the underworld."_

"_Why?"_

"_It is your father's will."I nodded my head, suddenly feeling extremely nervous. Was I in trouble? Did I do something? Of course I was already in trouble, but why would my father be angry at me._

"_Do not fear my child. Your father bears no ill will."_

"_How did you-"_

"_The ocean reflects your emotions; I could feel the currents and the waves change to fit what you are feeling." _

_She looked behind her suddenly as though being called._

"_I must go child," She looked back at me with solemn eyes as though she knew what would happen to me and my friends in the underworld. "Remember, you must go to Santa Monica."_

_She started to fade, never moving her eyes off of mine. _

"_Wait, don't go." I didn't want her to leave, I wanted to learn more._

"_Do not doubt your abilities," Now her voice was faint, barely a whisper I had to strain my ears to hear her. "Even in the darkest of times, there is always hope."_

_And then, she was gone._

* * *

><p>I woke with a start. That was weird.<p>

"Are you alright?" I jumped at the sound of Will's voice; I hadn't expected him to be awake. I must have been asleep for a long time, judging by the darkness outside.

"Yeah I'm fine, what time is it?"

"It's close to midnight," He said, not bothering to look at his watch.

"Why aren't you sleeping?" I asked rubbing away the sleep from my eyes.

"You started moving around like crazy and woke me up about five minutes ago."

I muttered a sorry before closing my eyes again, it was too late (or to early, whichever way you want to look at it) to be awake.

"Are you sure you're okay?" I sighed and opened my eyes. I turned to look at him in the dim light of the train carriage.

"I was?" He nodded "Oh."

Will raised an eyebrow at me but turned in his chair and mimicked my position.

"Are you going to tell me why?"

"Apparently people can now send me messages via my dreams."

"Yeah I heard about that. Apparently it's very common with demigods, it's one of the way's gods can communicate with their children without getting in trouble."

"Only one way? What's the other?"

"I think they're aloud to send letters. But I don't know if they can IM us." Now it was my turn to raise an eyebrow.

"IM? As in Instant Messaging?" Will chuckled quietly and shook his head.

"IM as in Iris Messaging, since we can't use cell phones we have to have some way of calling people."

"Why can't we have cell phones?"

"'Cos it'll be like setting off a flare that only monsters can see. It makes it easier for them to track us down; Chiron say's that the only time we should use a cell as a last resort."

So that's why my mom wouldn't by me a cell phone, she must have known about it making it easier for monsters to find me.

"So who sent you a message?"

"My father. Well, sort of."

"Sort of?"

"He sent someone to give me a message." Will looked at me expectantly.

"What did he say?"

"We have to go to Santa Monica."

"Why?" I shrugged

"No clue, all I know is that we're meant to go to Santa Monica before going to the underworld."

"Well then," Will started. "I guess we've got not no choice. We go to Santa Monica, find out why you're meant to be there. Get the message and then get to the underworld as fast as we can, which, by the way, we still have no idea where it is."

"Actually," I said, remembering something I saw back at Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium. "I think I might have an idea."

I told Will what I had found back at the shop about Medusa sending statues to Hades at D.O.A studios.

"At least now we have some idea of what to look for. All we have to do is look for the place."

"Should be easy enough," Will laughed quietly in disbelief. "What?"

"What part of this quest has been easy?"

"Okay, so maybe it hasn't been as easy as I would have liked it to be. But you never know, we might actually have some good luck."

He laughed again.

"You are such a seaweed brain sometimes, you know that right?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked defensively

"The only good luck we've had is that we're somehow still alive. I'm pretty sure that the Fates are making this quest as difficult as possible for us."

"Yes, but we're still alive like you said. That should be enough luck and if we get a little bit more to find Hades, then great. All we'd have to do is find a way to get away from Hades once we have the bolt."

"But what if Hades doesn't have the bolt?"

"Then maybe he'll help us find it. I am his niece after all." Will snorted in disbelief.

"It's more likely that Athena and Poseidon will suddenly become friends, than there is of Hades helping us."

Before I could retaliate a loud snort came from opposite us. Will and I both looked over at Grover who was fast asleep, muttering about some kind of food he liked.

"I'm gonna try get some sleep." I muttered. I turned back in my chair trying to get comfortable before closing my eyes once more. "Night pretty boy."

"Night seaweed brain."

* * *

><p>Eventually, the train stopped once more. Deciding not to risk anymore sightseeing we found a little diner that we thought looked, and smelt in Grover's case, safe.<p>

It wasn't long after we had ordered our food that we realized that we didn't have enough money to actually pay for the food. So you could understand that when our food came back, why we were stuttering like mad, trying to find a way to tell the waitress why we didn't have any enough money to pay for the food without sounding like a bunch of lunatics.

"To tell you the truth..."

"You see the thing is..."

"We don't exactly..."

The three of us stopped talking and looked between each other, waiting for someone to continue explaining to the waitress who was rapidly getting annoyed by the fact that none of us had given her any money.

"Do ya have the money or not?" Grover, Will and I looked at each other wide eyed. "Well?"

After a few more seconds of none of us handing over any money she moved to grab the plates off us, ignoring our protests.

She halted her movements when a deep rumbling sounded from outside. Nearly everyone in the diner turned to look out of windows to see what was causing the noise. The rumbling got louder and soon a red motorbike came hurtling down the road that led to the diner. It looked like it wasn't going to stop but just before it hit the wall next to our window, it stopped.

We watched in silent awe as the biker started to march his way towards the double doors. He was covered in black leather from head to toe with the exception of his blood red shirt, which was pulled tight over his muscles. His army boots thumped loudly against the floor as he made his way over to our table.

His eyes, which were covered in black sun glasses, were trained on the waitress, who was slowly beginning to shake with fear under his gaze. From the corner of my eye I could see Will shifting slightly in his seat. When I looked at him, I was surprised to see that he was slowly turning red. He looked angry for some reason. His right hand was clenched tightly on the table. His usually sky blue eyes had turned into a darker shade; from where I was sitting next to him they looked almost black. If looks could kill, that man would have been dead a thousand times over. I had never seen Will so angry before and to be honest, I don't think I wanted to see him like this again.

I looked back at the biker who had stopped walking, and was now stood in front of the quaking woman.

"I believe these children are hungry."

The waitress began moving her lips trying to say something, but all that came out was a squeak.

"Well?" The biker demanded

"They... no money," She coughed nervously before starting again, sounding allot more confidant. "They have no money, and the boss'll fire me if I give it to 'em for free."

"And?" The biker growled, leaning against the wall behind Grover. He crossed his arms over his chest, at the stuttering waitress. He breathed out a sigh of frustration and reached into his leather jacket pocket and pulled out a few notes. He shoved them towards the woman who quickly back away from us.

"Gods she was annoying," He muttered. "Move over will ya." He didn't give Grover much of a choice as he slid into the booth pushing into the wall.

"Well? I didn't waste that money for nothing you know."

Slowly we started eating. Grover looked like he was about to wet his pants and kept trying to push himself as far as he could into the wall. Will was giving the man his best glare while shoving a cheeseburger into his mouth. While I was eating I looked more closely at the man. His face held a few scars and his had been styled into a buzz cut.

While we were eating he had taken out an army knife and began cleaning underneath his nails, which seemed to me like a warning to anyone who tried coming near us. The message seemed pretty clear to the rest of the diner as everyone started to turn back to their meals and began talking in low voices to whoever was with them.

After talking a sip of my strawberry milkshake I decided to speak up.

"Who are you?" Grover looked up from his French fries and looked at me with terrified eyes.

"Sophia, this is-" The man held up his hand to stop Grover from talking.

"No, no let the girl figure it out." I bit the inside of my cheek while I thought. The man didn't look familiar, but that didn't mean I didn't know him.

The more I stared at him, the more I felt like I knew him. But the more I felt that, the less I believed it.

"I'm sorry, but I don't know who you are." The man didn't get a chance to answer as Will instantly answered for me.

"Ares, God of War." My eyes widened in realization

"Clarisse's father!" The man chuckled but kept his eyes on Will.

"I heard that you had an interesting run in with my daughter not so long ago. Don't worry," He added when he saw my worried face. "I never meddle in my children's battles."

"What do you want?" Will snapped. I looked at him in shook.

"I suggest you learn to hold your tongue boy." Ares growled. "If I wanted something from you, I'd ask you to do it in my own time."

"Even if there was something you wanted us to do, we wouldn't do it anyway." Grover and I looked at Will with similar expressions, wide eyes and mouths open in shock. In the small amount of time I knew him, I had never heard him speak with so much hatred.

Ares ignored his tone and leaned forward, resting his crossed arms on the table. And spoke in a whisper.

"Even if I could get you to L.A faster than the train?"

* * *

><p><strong>AN I know I said I wouldn't be uploading until after my GCSE's, but for some annoying reason all of my ideas for this chapter wouldn't leave my head. So I decided to write it down my ideas and ended up writing the entire chapter. But this will definately be the last chapter until the end of June so I hope you all like this chapter. **

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed and added my story to their favorites and alerts it means allot. Hope you guys won't mind the wait.**

**xWelshGirl4Lifex**


	15. Me and Will on the tunnel of Love

**I don't own Percy Jackson**

* * *

><p>"I can't believe we're doing this." Will said for about the hundredth time. He hadn't stopped complaining from the moment we had left the diner to find Ares' shield.<p>

Ares has asked (more like ordered) us to find his shield, where he had left it after his date with Aphrodite had ended a lot sooner than he had wanted.

Will did have a point though, why did we have to do it when Ares was more than capable of getting it himself?

"Will, please shut up."Grover whined. "You're giving me a head ace."

"Why did you have to say yes to him?" Will asked me.

"So we can get to Hades a lot sooner, so that we can get back to camp so that I can actually enjoy my summer."

"And the fact he's a God." Grover added.

"But why did he have to ask _us_?" I swear if Will didn't shut up very soon I was going to give him one heck of black eye. "Why couldn't he have asked one of his kids?"

"Because we're the ones on a quest, now shut up!" I snapped.

Will scowled at me and crossed his arms of his chest with a huff. You would have thought he was five years old instead of twelve.

We stopped outside the gates of a shut down Water Park. The place was pretty much deserted, old leaflets fluttered around outside advertising the amazing attractions the park had to offer. Because of my dyslexia, and because some of the letters had fallen down, I couldn't read the sign that hung above the gate.

"Are we in the right place?" I asked, wondering why to gods would be hanging out in a place like this.

"It must be, this is where we were told to go." Grover answered while looking around. The gate had a huge lock and chain stopping us from entering, and the wall didn't have enough foot holes to be able to climb over it.

"How are we going to get in?" Grover shrugged.

"I guess I could carry you over the wall one by one."

"What if we got caught?" I asked

"The mist might cover us."

"But is it worth the risk?"

Before Grover could answer, a loud explosion sounded bring the gate right of its hinge's. While Grover and I had been discussing how to get over the wall, Will had snuck away unnoticed and fired an arrow at the gate.

"Well would you look at that. The gates open." Will looked over at us with a slight smirk on his face. "Well are you going to stand there all day, or are you coming?"

He spun his bow in a quick circle which instantly shrunk down into his bracelet, which he then strapped back on his wrist. Not bothering to wait from an answer from us, he quickly marched into the park, leaving Grover and to run after him.

"We've got to hurry; I wouldn't be surprised if someone called the cops complaining about an explosion." He said once we had caught up with him.

"Then why did you do it?" Grover asked.

"Because she," He jerked a thumb in my direction. "Was too busy worrying being caught flying over a wall."

"Well sorry for being realistic." I snapped.

I marched on ahead of them, not really looking where I was going. I eventually led us to an old gift shop, which was still full of old merchandise. Deciding it would probably be a good idea to have a quick look around, I tried opening the door.

Luckily enough, the door was still open. I guess the old owners weren't exactly worried about people breaking into a rundown water park.

I almost squealed in delight at the sight of clothes. I might not be a daughter of Aphrodite, but I still liked the look of fresh clothes, even if they were a little dusty. Especially when the ones I had on I had been wearing since the beginning of the quest, and now that they had various rips and tears on them, I would have been happy with whatever was given to me.

Ignoring the two confused boys behind me, I rushed to grab the first shirt and pair of shorts in my size that I could find.

"Wait here," I called back to the boys as I rushed into a small changing room that stood in the corner of the shop.

"What happened to finding the shield quickly, just in case someone called the cops?" I heard Grover shout to me.

"Will said that, not me." I called back to them, while I pulled the fastest quick change I had ever done.

I pulled the curtain back as I was just finishing pulling down the shirt that advertised one of the rides in the park.

"There," I said as the boys looked up from where they were leaning up against a display of various pens, notepads ect. "That didn't take me too long now did it?"

Will didn't say anything and just walked out of the shop in a huff.

"What's wrong with him?" I asked Grover.

"Nothing, it's just Ares."

"What's Ares got to do with it?" He motioned for me to follow him back outside.

"He just had that effect on people,"

"What do you mean?" Grover shrugged.

"Some Gods can make people feel strange things while around them. Just like Ares."

"Oh, so he can make people really angry without trying?" Grover nodded. "But why weren't you and I affected?"

"I was about to wet my pants, so I think I was a bit too busy to be angry. For some reason, it seems to be affecting Will more than an average person. Most mortals and Half bloods would have calmed down by now, but he hasn't. As for you, I'm not sure why you weren't affected. If you really want to know, ask Annabeth once we get back to camp."

"_If, _we get back to camp." Grover placed a comforting hand on my shoulder and squeezed gently

"We will, don't worry." I smiled and threw my arm over his shoulder in a one armed hug, silently thanking him for being there.

The two of us started walking in the direction we thought Will had stormed off to, and eventually, we found him standing next to an old Tunnel of Love. It was now completely dry and a few boats were piled up against each other in various states of disrepair.

When he saw our confused looks, Will pointed down at a boat that was sitting on its own, in perfect condition. And on the seat of this boat was the shield.

"So how do we get down there?" Grover asked.

I sat down at the edge of the empty pool, trying to figure out a way to land without breaking my foot. Deciding to risk it, I push myself off the edge and managed to land on my feet without any trouble.

"You guys stay up there, I'll get the shield and throw it up to you, okay?" I didn't stick around to listen for an answer as I made my way towards the boat. Just as I reached the small boat I heard the thump of feet hitting the ground behind me.

When I turned around I was surprised to see that Will had decided to follow me.

"Before you ask I decided to help you."

"You do realize I'm only getting the shield right?" I asked him as he slowly made his way over to me. He made it seem like I was going to give the entire boat to Ares, not just his shield.

"I know," He said. "But how are you planning to get back out?" Fair point, I guess I hadn't thought my plan out properly.

I leant over the boat and tried to reach the shield which sat right in the middle of the boat, I had almost got it when Will pulled on the back of my shirt, dragging me away from the boat.

"What was that for?" I exclaimed once he had let go.

"I recognize that symbol." He pointed to the side of the boat were a small Greek letter had been carved into the wood. "But I can't figure out why."

"Great," I clapped my hands together with fake enthusiasm. "While you figure it out, I'm gonna get that shield." Which probably wasn't a good idea.

The shield had fallen underneath a wire, so as soon as I lifted the shield, the wire snapped causing the two cupid statues to turn and look directly at us.

"_Live to Olympus in 30 seconds!"_ The booming voice echoed all across the empty park. Well that can't be good.

"You idiot!" Will shouted. "I told you I knew what that symbol was! It means trap!"

"Then why didn't you tell me that!"

Doors about the size of a mouse hole started to open all along the tunnel causing hundreds of small metal balls rolled out of them. As soon as the last one fell they began to grow legs until finally they resembled spiders.

The spiders started scuttling towards us forcing Will and I into the small boat. I started looking around frantically looking for something to help us. A small round hole near the corner of the pool caught my attention. This was a water park, so there had to be water somewhere.

I closed my eyes tightly, trying to think of any source of water I knew, the ocean, rivers, hoping I might be able to get some reaction.

"What are you doing?" Will screamed

"Shhhhh,"

"_Live to Olympus in 20 seconds!"_

"Just keep the spiders away from me."

"Easier said than done." I heard him mutter.

I tried concentrating harder, trying to draw the water towards me. I could hear the blood pumping in my ears.

"Sophia, hurry up!"

"_Live to in 10, 9, 8..." _

I felt something tugging at my gut. I wasn't uncomfortable, but it felt strange.

"5, 4, 3..."

The tugging got stronger until finally...

_BOOM!_

"_1" _

My eyes shot open as the sound of water thundering through the pipes that led into the pool. The metal spiders started panicking and began running around in circles, trying to find their way back into the little holes they had come from.

The water rushed towards the boat, washing away any stray spiders that hadn't managed to make it to safety. The water picked the boat up and dragged it down the dark tunnel, the two giant cupids turning so they could watch our journey.

Will was gripping onto my arm like it was the only thing keeping him from dying.

"Will, your stopping the blood circulation in my arm." When he didn't answer I tried to pull myself out of his tight grip. "Will! What's wrong with you?"

"I don't like water." He whimpered. I looked at him with wide eyes.

"Then why didn't you tell me that before?"

"You didn't exactly tell me you were gonna flood this place." He snapped.

I looked at him more carefully when his grip on my arm tightened, his face had turned a deathly white and he looked like he was about to be sick at any moment. You couldn't tell just by looking at him, but I could feel him shaking slightly.

"Don't worry; you can't drown with me here." I said, trying to comfort him as much as possible.

"It's not the drowning that worries me. It's that."

I followed the direction of his eyesight and groaned.

"You have got to be kidding me."

The exit had been barred by a closed gate and old boats piled up against one another where they must have crashed at some point.

"Can you swim?" I ended up shouting at Will, trying to get myself heard over the water that was now beating against the boats up ahead.

"I just said I don't water!" He shouted back.

"Then we're gonna have to jump! On my count."

"No!" Will said, now sounding more confidant. "On my count."

"What?"

"It's all about timing. Trust me!"

"Alright fine. On your count."

"Have you got the shield?" Will asked.

"Got it right here," I said showing him the shield I had strapped onto my left arm.

"Just checking."

Still holding my arm, Will moved so his legs were slightly bent. I figured he was getting ready to jump so I did the same.

We were getting closer and closer to the gate and Will still hadn't said anything. We were nearly on top of it when Will shouted,  
>"Now!"<p>

The two of us leapt into the air just before our boat hit the gate. We sailed through the air, over the gate and would have had an extremely painful landing if Grover hadn't been waiting outside the exit for us.

He caught us mid air and managed to get us to the ground safely.

"You guys okay?" Will and I nodded, panting heavily from the experience. "Good, please don't do that again, you guy's weigh a ton."

"Thanks for your concern." I said as fiercely as I could while sounding like I had just ran a marathon. I grabbed his outstretched hand and pulled myself up before I helped Will up. I noticed that the two giant cupids had done a full 360 turn and were now watching the three of us as we helped each other calm down.

Deciding enough was enough, I took an overly exaggerated bow and spread my arms wide open.

"Thank you, and good night."

I watched as they straightened up and turned back to facing the direction they had been looking in, in the first place.

"C'mon," I said "Let's get out of here. Who knows what else in this place is a trap."

* * *

><p>When we had finally made it back to the diner, we found Ares leaning up against his red motor bike with a blue rucksack at his feet. Throwing any manners I had out the window, I stormed up him and shoved the shield into his chest.<p>

"You knew it was a trap didn't you?" He chuckled darkly at me and snatched the shield out of my hands.

"I'd watch your tone if I were you girl."

"Answer her." I heard Will snap from somewhere behind me.

Ares held his hands up in surrender, but I could tell he was only mocking us.

"Yeah I knew it was a trap. But you still survived didn't ya?" I said nothing, still glaring at him. "Look, here's a little something for your troubles. And there's your ride." He handed me the blue rucksack with one hand and pointed at something behind me. I took the bag from his hands before risking a glance behind me.

A truck stood parked outside of the diner's parking lot as it was too big to actually park there. The paint had began to peel off and the writing on the trailer had faded so you could barely make out the words.

"It leaves in five minutes. I suggest you hurry and get on." Ares left no room for argument as he strapped his shield to his back, hopped onto his bike and zoomed off down the road, leaving us standing around looking like a bunch of idiots.

"Guess we have no choice then," Grover said. "C'mon then."

Shouldered the bag and followed the two boys over to the truck. Luckily the door was already slightly opened, and I didn't know it was because of Ares, or because the owners had forgotten to close it. Either way, we climbed into the back and shut the door as tightly as possible.

"God's what's that smell." I heard Will complain. But I didn't answer because I was too busy trying not to gag. I took my sword out, remembering the faint glow I had seen it give off every time I had, had it out.

I was horrified by what I saw through the dim light my sword gave off. There were three poorly treated animals, an albino lion, a zebra with chewing gum stuck in its main and an antelope with a balloon stuck to its antler, trapped in small cages that gave them barely enough room to move around.

"Who are these people?" Grover whispered. "Why would anyone do something like this?"

"Look, we haven't got time to be picky, let's just find somewhere to sit down and hope that the owners don't find us." I said, before settling down on the floor with my back up against a soggy pile of hay, trying to ignore the gaze of the hungry lion.

* * *

><p>We must have been in the truck for at least an hour , and so far nothing had happened. Grover was sat nearer the animals than Will and I, as he had said he had wanted to talk to the animals and give them some company.<p>

"I didn't know Grover could talk to animals," I whispered to Will who was sat next to me by the hay.

"It's a satyr thing," He whispered back. "The can talk to all kinds of animals. That's how he could talk to Rosetta."

"Who?"

"The pink poodle. Oreo?" I took one when he showed me the packet of double stuffed Oreo's. I turned the biscuit around in my hand thinking, before taking a bite.

We sat in silence for a while, before I decided to ask Will what happened back at the Water Park.

"Why are you scared of Water?" He thought for a moment before answering, keeping his voice at the low whisper we had been speaking in so the truck driver's wouldn't hear us.

"I don't really know. I've been scared of Water for as long as I can remember. I guess something must have happened to me when I was a baby and the fear just sort of stuck."

"Have you ever tried getting over it?" He shook his head. "Why not?"

"Never actually found a reason to try and get over it."

"Have you changed your mind after what happened back at the Water Park?"

"Nope," I didn't know what to say so I kept quiet. "Are you scared of anything?"

"Heights I guess, but that's probably because my father's Poseidon not because I had a bad experience when I was child."

"Have you ever tried getting over it?" He asked, mocking my words from earlier on. I hit his arm playfully before answering.

"If I did, my uncle would probably kill me."

"Fair point. But what about before you found out who you were and who your dad is?"

"I didn't really know I was scared of heights until _after_ I climbed the wall at camp."

"You seemed fine when I saw you climbing it."

"That's mainly because I didn't want to be burnt alive." He laughed quietly at my words but didn't say anything else.

We ended up listening to Grover talking to the lion for a long time, neither of us bothering to talk. But the peace between the three of us ended when the truck came to an abrupt halt. The three of us froze listening to any sound of movement outside. We started to panic when we heard a door slam shut, and footsteps make their way over to the back of the truck.

We quickly grabbed our bag and I touched the tip of my sword with its pen lid to change it back into its alternate form. The three of us dived behind the pile of hay, and pressed ourselves up as close as possible so we wouldn't get caught.

The door opened and a sudden burst of sunlight fluttered in through the open door making Grover and I squint at the sudden brightness, Will was unaffected.

"Alright you mangy beasts, time for dinner." A harsh voice sounded from the other side of the hay. I could hear him moving things and insulting the animals, which caused the lion to growl at him, but I couldn't exactly hear much after that. It wasn't until the man was leaving that I actually heard what he said,

"Hope you enjoy you last meal boys, next stop Las Vegas."

As soon as the door closed Grover turned to look at Will and me,

"Vegas? Why Vegas?"

_He's selling us to a man for a show. _

"I think whoever owns this truck is selling the animals for a show or something." I said, repeating what the voice in my head had said.

"What makes you think that?" I shrugged, not really sure how I would explain the whole voice in my head.

_Help us milady, you've got to get us out of here._

"We've got to get out of here guys," Will nodded in agreement

"Your right, but we can't do anything now. Who knows where we are."

"Your right but that's not what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?" Grover asked bewildered.

"I mean we've got to get out of this spot, I'm getting a bit claustrophobic."

Realizing what they meant, they quickly scampered away from me, giving me enough space to breathe.

When I got up away from where I had been sitting up against the wall, I realized what the man had been doing. When he had been giving the animals food, he had purposely put the food in the wrong dishes.

The lion had a small pile of turnips, while the antelope had some hay and the zebra had a huge chunk of meat. I grabbed a pitch fork from where it had been leaning against the hay, and ordered Grover and Will to help me put the food in the right dishes.

When I was putting the last of the hay into the zebra's bowl I heard the strange voice again.

_Thank you milady_

I tried to ignore it but when I looked up into the zebra's big brown eyes, a weird question came to my head.

Was the zebra talking to me?

* * *

><p><strong>AN From now on, if I say anything about waiting until after I finish my GCSE's to upload my next chapter, just ignore it. I can't seem to leave this story alone for one moment.  
>This chapter is a little bit rushed, but that's mainly because I've had nothing to do all day so I ended up writing this, and since I have a lot of spare time in the morning's before school, you can expect a chapter up sometime next week.<strong>

**Anyway once again thanks to everyone who is actually reading this story, and I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Until next time**

**xWelshGirl4Lifex**


	16. Lotus Casino and Hotel

**I don't own Percy Jackson**

* * *

><p>I'm not sure why we did, what we did, next. But it got the effect we wanted...sort of.<p>

Basically after I had figured out that the zebra was actually talking to me, I didn't feel comfortable leaving it here waiting for whatever torture was waiting for it at its new _'home'_. So the three of us, as in Grover, Will and I, thought up a plan to set them loose. Grover and I seemed pretty confidante with the plan, but Will didn't seem to like it at all.

"This isn't going to go down well." He kept saying.

"It will, don't worry." Grover replied, "I've talked to them and they said they'd be on their best behaviour."

Somehow I doubted that.

"And if it worries you so much, you can just stand back."

Will sighed but stood back anyway, while Grover and I were busying ourselves with the locks on the cages. We had decided to unlock the lion's cage last, not wanting to take any risks. I felt sorry for anyone who stood in that lion's way, he seemed pretty angry.

It wasn't until we had actually came to a red light that we put our plan in action.

"Will! Open the door's!"

"I thought you told me to stand back?"

"Just do it!" I snapped.

With a sigh, he forcefully kicked the door open. The driver had his head out of his car window, screaming like crazy at us.

"Sorry!" Will yelled back, completely forgetting that we were meant to stay quiet. But then again, that plan went downhill after Will broke the door's down. "You better get back in the car. This isn't going to be pretty."

"Will! Get back in here and open this cage!"

If the driver's hadn't figured out what was going on, they did figure it out when Grover shouted at Will. Their muffled curses flowed into the back. I could hear them moving around in a panic, trying to get out too stop us.

"Now!" I yelled.

Grover quickly opened the lion's cage, stepping aside as it raced out and leapt onto the bonnet of the car behind us.

I opened the zebra's cage at the same moment Will opened the one of the antelope, both rushed out of truck and copied what the lion had done moments before.

_Thank you milady, _I heard when the zebra rushed pashed. _I will never forget this._

I watched with mild interest as Grover started muttering strange words in Ancient Greek.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Praying to Pan for their safety."

"Who?"

"You don't know who Pan is?" I shook my head. Grover looked as though I had just announced that I had just killed his puppy. His mouth was moving, but no words were coming out. I was almost as though he had gone into shock.

"Guys, we have to go."

I realized that Will was right. We only had a few more seconds one of those drivers's found us, and to be honest, I really wasn't in the mood for getting caught. I grabbed the still stunned Grover by the arm and began dragging out of the truck and onto the road.

We had been running all over Vegas, trying to find somewhere to spend the night. But whenever we found somewhere to stay, Grover dragged us off in the opposite direction saying that it smelt fishy. I found that quite offensive actually, I'm pretty sure that fish didn't smell that bad. I kept pointing this out to Grover but he just ignored me and carried on saying it. Probably out of spite.

We eventually came to a stop outside an alley to trying to catch our breath.

"Look we've got to find somewhere to stay," Will panted. "If the next place we find has monsters in it, we fight."

"I don't think that's a good idea," Grover said while swiping away the beads of sweat that had began to form on his head.

"We don't have much of a choice Grover," I said looking up from where I had been rubbing my stomach trying to easy the cramp that had appeared not long ago. "It's not like we can spend the night in a hotel."

He sighed and ran his hand through his curly brown hair, something I had learnt quite early on when I met him, meant that he was annoyed with me.

"I know it's not the best idea but its only thing we c-"

"What's that smell?" Annoyed, I looked at Grover with a glare.

"What are you talking-?"

"I smell it to?" I turned my glare onto Will. Where they doing this on purpose?

"Well I don't! Now will you stop int-"

"It's coming from down there." I threw my hands up in frustration, I gave up. Both Will and Grover's attentions were fixed solely on the alley. Leave it to boys to think with their stomachs.

"Let's go check it out" Will and Grover made their way into the alley leaving my standing on my own by the side of the road. Looking around, I realized that I looked like an idiot just standing there, so I ran into the dark alley to try and catch up with Will and Grover.

* * *

><p>Grover, Will and I were stood in front of the Lotus Casino and Hotel. It had been tucked away at the end of the long alley, hidden away from the outside world. Although I'm not sure how no one ever noticed it before, it was very hard to miss. The outside was covered in different shades of yellow's and gold's with multicoloured lights flashing like crazy around the outline of the huge sign that identified the hotel.<p>

Music was blasting from the inside and the faint smell of freshly cooked food wafted out to us. It had been the food cooking that had gotten the boys attention. You would have thought that Will would have noticed the music first, with him being the son of Apollo and all. But apparently the food had interested him more.

I could see people moving about inside, mingling with each other and swaying softly to the music. The thing that was odd about the place, well, I thought it was odd anyway, was that it was packed with kids around the ages of nine to eighteen.

"Is everything all right sirs and madam?" The three of us turned to look at the door man who seemed to have appeared out of thin air. The boy's didn't seem to realize this and went back to staring up at the hotel as though it held of the wonders of the Earth just behind those two doors.

"We're fine, just looking." I explained to the door man hoping he wouldn't do anything that would get us into trouble.

"Why don't you come in and relax for a while." I shook my head and explained that we didn't have enough money and that we probably should get going. But the doorman wouldn't have any of it.

"Nonsense," He said. "We'd never throw defenseless children out onto the street. Come on in and sit a spell."

"But we really must get going," I persisted.

"We have a spa and a pool. You could relax there and get cleaned up." The pool and being offered to get cleaned up almost broke me but I stayed strong. We really didn't have time to relax. "There's also a game room, full of the latest games and gaming systems."

As soon as the man said the words game room, Grover and Will bolted into the hotel once again leaving me behind.

"Here," The door man handed me three small plastic cards that resembled a credit card but was only valid in the hotel. "Hand these over to the woman behind the desk and she'll check you into a room"

I realized that I probably shouldn't leave Grover and Will inside the hotel on their own, who know what kind of trouble they would get into if I wasn't there.

As I stepped into the hotel lobby I instantly crashed into Will and Grover who were stood frozen looking around the room with gapping mouths, they seemed to be having trouble deciding what to do first. I sighed and pushed myself in between the two of them, which seemed to gain their attention.

"We've got to check in first before you two do something stupid."

"I thought we didn't have any money." I held up the three cards that the door man had given me.

"The man said to give this to whoever was behind the desk and she'd check us in." I led the two of them over to the front desk to check in, my confidence fading with every step I took.

"Can I help you dear's?" The woman behind the front desk smiled up at the three of us, and I could feel my fears fading away. She seemed nice enough and I doubted she'd turn us away.

"We'd like a room if you've got a spare one."

"Sweetheart, we've always got a spare room here at the Lotus Casino and Hotel." Grover, Will and I looked between each other with looks of relief.

"Great," I said

"I'll just have to look at the cards you got at the door." I handed the woman the cards and tapped my fingers against the wooden desk impatiently, if these cards worked the first thing I'd be doing would be taking a shower.

"Here you go my dears; you're on the twenty-first floor, room 203." We thanked her and took back the cards she offered us and headed to the elevator's she had pointed towards.

* * *

><p>The room was huge; the three of us each had our own bedroom and bathroom. The bathroom's had a similar layout, a hot tubbath tub sat in the center of the pristine white and blue tilled room. A walking shower sat in the far corner of the room, offering privacy to whoever was in there if someone were to walk into the room unannounced.

The only difference with the bedrooms was the wall paper. Mine had blue wall, Grover had green and Will had yellow. If any of us found it odd, no one mentioned it. We each had a king sized bed, with sheets that matched our wall paper, a walk in wardrobe filled with designer clothing and a flat screen TV hung on the wall facing the bed.

The main room was a mixture of reds, yellows and oranges, which according to Will reminded him of the sunrises he had seen many time at camp. The room had the most amazing view of Las Vegas I had ever seen; you could see the lights from the hotels, casinos and shows all around the city.

After I had realized that we wouldn't need the bag Ares had given us anymore, I quickly threw it into a garbage bin in the small kitchen the room had to offer us.

I made sure Will and Grover were in bed before I climbed into the softest bed I had ever known, I didn't trust them enough to go to sleep before them I had a feeling that they'd be running around the hotel like crazy before even getting the well needed sleep the three of us desperately needed.

* * *

><p>I woke up to the morning sun shining in my eyes, warming my face pleasantly. I sighed in happiness when I realized I had slept the full night without any weird dreams walking me halfway through the night. That night on the train hadn't been the first time I had been woken up because of a dream, but I had never mentioned it to Will, or Grover for that matter. Every time I had been in that strange cavern I had dreamed on that first night at camp. But every time I had been alone.<p>

The strange voice I had heard coming from the pit before was always talking to me. Trying to drag me into the pit, trying to get me to help it. But I always seemed to wake up just before I fell into the dark depths. I looked around the room I was in and sat bolt upright, completely confused. Where was I?

The events from last night flowed into my head, the truck, the animals, the zebra talking to me. Okay that last point seemed a bit absurd but I swear that's what happened. Then I remembered running around Las Vegas like crazy, then finding a hotel. The hotel I was now in.

I sighed and got out of bed, deciding that it would be a good idea to get the boys up so we could explore together. Remembering what the door man had said the night before about the spa and pool, I decided to look for some kind of swim suit the hotel staff had supplied in my closet.

After about ten minutes of searching and after pushing aside many bikinis I finally found a simple navy blue one piece. I quickly changed into it and then threw a pair of black shorts over it. I headed into the bathroom to grab a towel, thinking that a lot of people in the hotel would find it odd that I had gone to the pool with no towel.

I threw the towel on a side table that was next to the door and went into Grover's room. But when I walked in I found the sheet's scrunched up in the middle of the bed and no Grover. I couldn't hear him in the bathroom and guessed that he wasn't in there.

I walked out and went to Will's room.

"Will have you seen -" I stopped short when I realized that Will's room was in the same condition as Grover's had been, except Will had at least made an attempt at making his bed.

They left without me! I couldn't believe them. I angrily grabbed my towel and card and stomped out of the room. I practically punched the button that would take me down to the first floor, where I had learnt that the pool was when I had looked at a map of the hotel that someone had kindly placed in the hotel room.

I marched through the hotel lobby, ignoring the strange looks I got from the hotel staff. When I found the pool I froze. I was 99.9% certain that my face looked exactly the same as the boy's had been when they saw the hotel's golden lobby the night before.

The pool was almost as big as one of the pool's who always saw people swimming or diving in when the Olympics were on. The water was crystal blue and looked cleaner than any other pool I had ever been to, lounge chairs were place around the pool allowing anyone who visited the perfect place to relax and rest after spending time swimming laps.

And the best part. I had the place all to myself. In my world, I had found my piece of heaven.

* * *

><p>I spent hours in the pool without even bothering to get out, since no one came in I was able to keep myself dry while testing out some of the pool's equipment like the wave machine, which I seriously couldn't get enough of. Although I was sure I could make my own waves with a lot less effort than actually getting out of the pool to press the button that started the machine, which was exactly what I did. I must have spent an hour or so testing out my water abilities. As I had guessed I could make myself dry or wet whenever I felt like it.<p>

I guess I must have been in the water for about seven hours until I decided I had better get out and look for the boys. I figured they would have been looking for me, but as it was, I ended up being the one who was looking for them. I found Grover first playing this bizarre game where the player ended up being the deer and it was your job to kill the hunter. I had ended up walking away slowly from him when he started screaming violently at the game when I had tried to talk to him.

Finding Will had been a lot harder but I eventually found him playing with the newest guitar hero. He had been rocking out (and I mean that literally, he was doing all the strange moves you saw guitarists doing on stage at rock concerts) to the hardest level, his fingers were flying up and down the plastic guitar neck like crazy. I managed to get a better response out of him than I did from Grover, but even then I couldn't actually carry out a proper conversation with him.

"Got to get five stars," he kept muttering. "Got to be the best, got to be the best."

I ended up giving up trying to talk to him and decided to go off to explore the hotel more. I eventually found a vintage game room. It looked vaguely like what you would have seen in an arcade during the sixty's. I walked around looking at the classic games with interest.

Because I was paying so much attention to the games, I hadn't been watching where I had been going and eventually ran straight into someone.

"I'm so so-"

"Watch where you're going will you!" The voice of the angry person I was currently on top of sounded from underneath me.

"I'm so sorry." I said again. "I wasn't watching were I was-"

"Yeah, yeah I've heard it all before now get off me."

I quickly jumped off the poor person I had landed on, still apologizing about our little fall. He just kept waving my apologies off. It wasn't until I was watching the guy dust himself off that I realized that he was dressed a lot differently to what you would see people wearing today.

He wore yellow flares that he had been pulled up higher than what should have been natural, with white boots with a slight heel to them. His red checkered shirt was tucked into his pants. And his long hair fell in natural waves to just below his shoulders.

"What you looking at?" I shook myself when I realized I had been staring at him.

"Nothing, what you playing?"

"Just this really groovy game that just came out, you should try it." I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Groovy? You do realize that no one says that anymore right?"

"I don't know where you're from, but everyone I know say's groovy."

"Right," I was confused by this. No one I knew ever said groovy. In fact, I think the last time someone had said that was in the... He couldn't be, could he?

"Just a quick question. But, um what's the date?" He looked at me oddly. "Sorry, but I have a really bad memory."

"It's October 5th,"

"But what's the year?" I pressed when he didn't continue.

"1967, why?"

My eyes widened as I started to put together the pieces. If he's from the sixties and he hadn't even aged a day, then did that mean that this hotel stopped time from the inside?

"And how long have you been here?" The boy shrugged.

"Dunno 'bout two days, why? Hey where you going?"

I didn't stay to answer as I quickly sprinted out of the strange room. I had to get to Will and Grover. If that guy thought he had been here for two days, how long had we been here for? We couldn't have passed our deadline could have we?

* * *

><p><strong>Like I said, here's the next chapter, right on time. I'm a bit unsure about this chapter so if there are something's that you think I'm wrong about, like the 60's boy, let me know. It would mean a lot to me. <strong>

**Anyway next chapter will be up very shortly, so bare with me while I put the finishing touches to it. **

**xWelshGirl4Lifex**


	17. The race against time begins

**I don't own Percy Jackson**

* * *

><p>I quickly found Will where I had last left him, playing guitar hero, only now he had progressed to the last venue.<p>

"Will," I yelled. "We've got to get out of here! They've frozen time!"

"Uh huh, that's good now shh. I'm about to beat my high score," I couldn't believe him. I just told him we were stuck in a hotel where time stays the same, and all he cared about was getting the high score. I started waving my arms like crazy, trying to catch his attention but nothing worked.

A staff member began to make his way over to us, and I quickly changed from trying to get Will's attention to cheering him on.

"C'mon Will! You've almost got it!" I screamed with fake enthusiasm. My voice trailed off as I watched the hotel worker walk away, then I changed my tactic. I tried to think of something that would get his attention.

"Will! You've got to help me!"

"What now?" He growled.

"I'm bleeding! I slipped and fell and now I won't stop bleeding." That got his attention.

He dropped the guitar and turned to me, instantly going into medic mode. He quickly scanned me with his eyes, looking to see where I was bleeding. He stopped his examination when he realized that I was scowling at him and had my hands on my hips.

"I'm in trouble, aren't I?" I nodded

"Yeah." I held up my hand to stop him from saying sorry. "Don't. Right now we've got to get Grover and get out of here."

I turned away from him and began making my way towards where I had seen Grover last. Will managed to keep up with my fast pace and kept trying to apologise to me about the way he had acted, I was actually quite flattered by that but I was still beginning to feel really annoyed by it as well.

"Will, if you say sorry one more time, I'm gonna throw you into the hotel's swimming pool and leave you there to drown!"

"Sorry." I turned around and gave him my best death glare. He eyes widened and he slapped his hands over his mouth. I ignored him and kept walking forwards, glaring at anyone who got in my way.

Getting Grover out of the hotel proved to be a difficult task, as we couldn't get him away from his game, no matter what we did. Now Will and I were beginning to panic. The hotel staff were beginning to figure out that whatever spell they had on us had been broken, and we were more alert now than we had been before we had gotten to the hotel. We needed to get Grover out of here, and fast.

Will and I looked at each other and agreed silently that if we were going to get Grover out of here, we were gonna have to do it by force.

Both of us grabbed an arm each, and began dragging Grover away from his game. But of course Grover would let us do it easily. He began kicking and screaming, quickly gaining the attention of workers.

"Is there a problem Mr. Underwood?" A man asked, stepping in front of me and Will, stopping us from going any further.

"There're kidnapping me!" Grover screamed, keeping up his fight to get out of our grips. Unfortunately for him, Will had gained some muscle from doing archery for years and I had gotten stronger since I had gotten to camp, so he wasn't able to get away.

"Well then I'm sorry Miss. Jackson and Mr. Solace," The man began, "But I'm afraid that we're going to have to put you in solitary confinement."

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see some heavily armoured men slowly making their way towards us.

"And I'm sorry sir, but I'm afraid we can't allow that." I lifted my knee quickly, not giving him a chance to move out of the way, and kneed him where the sun don't shine.

"Remind me not to get on your bad side," Will said, grimacing slightly at the sight of the grown man who was on the floor, groaning in pain.

"You already are, now move!"

We began running to get away from the men who were now chasing us. The closer we got to the door, the more Grover kept struggling.

"No! I've almost got the high score!" I rolled my eyes, what as it with boy's and food and getting high scores?

"Almost there," Will grunted.

We literally fell out of the front doors and onto the cold floor of the alley, whatever pull the hotel had on Grover seemed to break as soon as he was able to smell the fresh air. I felt extra weight on my back, and realized that the bag I had thrown in the trash had appeared on my back.

"What happened?" Grover groaned, clutching his head. He looked as though someone had hit over the head with a hammer repeatedly.

"No time to explain," I said rushing to my feet. "We've got to find out the date."

I rushed out of the alley and looked around, trying to find something that could tell us the date. Seeing a news stand on the other side of the street, I ran into the road dodging cars and ignoring the angry shouts of driver's that were being aimed at me.

I reached the news stand and grabbed the closest newspaper I could, and began searching for the date. It was June 19th two days before the solstice.

"Ya gonna pay for tha'?" The man behind the stand said leering at me.

"No, I was just checking the date." I said placing the paper back in its place. I notice that the man's eyes were fixed on a certain part of my body. It was then I realized that I was still in that swim suit I had borrowed from the Lotus hotel. I scoffed in disgust. I wasn't exactly developed in the chest department, but did that man have to stare at me like I was a piece of meat?

I stalked away from the stall crossing my arms over my chest; I could hear the man chuckling from where he stood behind his stand. I stood leaning against a lamp post, waiting for Will and Grover to reach me, ignoring the looks some of the drunk men where giving me. I was twelve for god's sake!

Eventually the boys caught up with me, and Will, noticing the looks the men were giving me, slipped off his jacket and gave it to me. I thanked him and handed him the rucksack to him while I slipped on the green jacket. It was slightly baggy, but I was able to use my hands without too much trouble. Will refused to give me the bag back, claiming that it was his way of apologising for the way he had been acting for most of this quest.

"We have two days to get to L.A then get back to New York before we start World War Three," I told them, quickly making my way towards a cab that had just pulled up next to the curb to let someone out. "We've got to hurry."

The three of us slid into the cab, and Grover slammed the door behind him.

"Do you take casino cards?" I asked the cabbie, he shrugged.

"Not much different from credit cards are they?" I threw him the card I had gotten before I had entered the Lotus casino.

"Great, get us to L.A as fast as possible." The cabbie chuckled in disbelief.

"Do you know how much that'll cost ya?" He swiped the card through his machine and handed the card back to me. The three of us waited with baited breath, hopping that the card worked.

The cabbie's mouth swung open, the cigarette he had been smoking fell out of his mouth and into his lap. Whatever he had seen made him swerve into traffic and speed away, dodging as many cars as he could. The three of us in the back were sliding like crazy at every turn he made, when he finally had to stop at a red light we quickly put our seat belts of before he began speeding off again.

"Don't worry your majesties," The cabbie said as soon as we passed the farewell sign. "I'll get you to L.A as soon as possible. Tomorrow afternoon the earliest.'

"Can't you get us there sooner? It's really important," Will begged, but the cabbie didn't speed up. "We'll pay you extra."

Those seemed to be the magic words, and soon the cabbie was driving at top speed towards L.A where hopefully we would get there with enough time to spare.

* * *

><p>Even with the cabbie's ridiculous driving, we still didn't get there until late afternoon. It wouldn't be long until the sun would begin to set.<p>

"We have to get to the beach," I said, remembering that I had been called there by my father.

"Why?" Grover asked.

"Didn't we tell you?" I asked, when Grover replied no, I explained. "Apparently my father wants to talk to me."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Grover asked, looking a little upset that I had forgotten to mention to him that I had been summoned.

"I was going to, but then Ares appeared and distracted me."

"Do you know what he wants?"

"No, but there's only one way to find out."

We made our way towards the coast, and at one point we had passed an electronic store, that about a dozen or so TV set's on display in the window. As we were passing, we were able to catch the beginning of a report.

"For the last two weeks, we have been asking the public for any news you may have on Sophia Jackson who had been reported missing when she and her mother hadn't returned from a two day trip to Montauk beach," Two separate pictures of my mother and myself appeared on the screen.

"It wasn't until just recently that the police announced that Sophia Jackson is now a wanted person. Gabe Ugliano, Sophia's loving stepfather's," I snorted when I heard that. "Camaro was found in Long Island, where it had been upturned in a ditch with no trace of Sophia or her mother. At first police believed that kidnapping had been involved, until they told Mr, Ugliano the upsetting news."

This time they showed a clip of someone talking to Smelly Gabe, breaking the 'horrible' news to him. He sat back in his chair, but didn't look surprised; he looked as though he had been expecting this. The reporter pointed this out to him, but all he said was:

"I always knew she'd do something like this, she always caused trouble. Always attacking her mother whenever she tried to do something nice for her. She has been kicked out of five schools in the past five years and never seemed to give her mother a break. I tried telling her this, but she completely freaked out and gave me this," He pointed towards a scar on his face, which he had gotten from falling over when he had been completely drunk.

"I just hope that someone finds my wife and soon, before that child does something to her."

I was surprised at Gabe's acting; he had even managed to squeeze out a few tears for the camera.

"Now you all know the truth," The reporter continued. "Sophia Jackson had been reported to be travelling with two other boys' around her age. Whether they are working together is still unknown. She has been seen at a small dinner's parking lot earlier this week, passing off a secret package to a man in return for something else. Police aren't sure, but they say there is a small chance it could be explosives. We urge anyone, who any information on her to call police immediately and not to try and apprehend her yourselves. She is dangerous, be careful."

Grover dragged me away from the shop when the next report began and tried calming me down, so I wouldn't head back to Manhattan and kill Gabe with my bare hands

"It'll be fine. The three of us know what really happened. Let's just get the lightning bolt and get your name cleared. Yeah?" I nodded, fighting back the tears of anger that threatened to fall.

"Let's just go and find out what my father wants."

It took about two hours to reach the beach from where the cab driver had dropped us off, especially since we had to be more careful now that I was a wanted fugitive, and by now the sky had began to darken.

There were still a few people sitting on the beach, making the most of the last sun rays. So we had to walk further than I would have liked to get out of the public's eye.

"So what now?" Grover asked when came to a standstill, facing the ocean. A thought came to head, it would seem crazy to anyone who didn't know me and who I was, but it might work.

"Stay here," I told them. I ran into the water, not stopping until I was completely submerged by water. I looked around not exactly sure where I was meant to go. But I pushed myself forward, not really sure what I looking for.

Eventually, I could see nothing but water. If I had been someone else, I'm pretty sure I would have struggled to find the surface. Something in me knew that this was where I was meant to be, but I could see nothing but the blue, salty water.

The water in front of me began to shift; slowly forming the figure I had once seen in my dream. She seemed to be taking her time, to change into her human form. I could have sworn it had taken less time for her to become visible before.

_I came to you in a dream my young one,_ The same warm voice I remembered echoed in my head. Filling up the silence that surrounded me. _I was able to speed up what you were seeing then. It is easy to manipulate what people see, but it is not always east you change what they hear, remember that. _I nodded not really sure what to say.

_Your father sends his apologies for not being here. If you had gotten here sooner, you might have been speaking to him right now._

"It's not my fault" I said. "We got a little side tracked."

_Your father knows what happened to you and your friend's child. You cannot hide from the gods. They will give you privacy when they decide to give you it. _

"The gods are watching me?" The ocean spirit nodded.

_They have been watching your process young one. Your farther had almost given up hope when you found that cursed hotel._

"Why would he give up hope?"

_You are the only hope he has to make sure that this war does not happen. While his armies have amazing strength, you uncle's forces are stronger. Especially with the god of war and goddess of battle strategy on his side._

"So that's why he claimed me then? Just so I could stop this war. Just do I could save his butt?" It all made sense now, why else would my father claim me? I remember back at Yancy, when Chiron was still Mr. Brunner to me, my Latin teacher. He had said that gods often admitted to having a child just so they could do their dirty work for them.

_That is not true child. Your father has been watching you since you were a baby, he always making sure you were safe. He was protecting you. _

"If he was protecting me, why didn't he help me when the fury attacked me back at the museum?"

_Not even Zeus can change the fates decisions. I know that if he could, he would make sure that you weren't on this quest. He would make sure you were at home, safe with your mother._

"Yeah, well my mother's dead. And I don't think he can turn back time can he?"

_Something aren't always as they seem. Sometimes the things we see are just illusions._

"Like you?" I snapped.

_There is no need for words like that. _The sea spirit's warm voice changed, it now seemed darker, and I'll admit, I was actually intimated. But because of my stubbornness, I wasn't about to show it.

"Then give me some straight answers! Is my mother dead or not?"

_You must find that out for yourself child. _She said, voice going back to its normal, calming tone.

"Oh yeah, because that answer's everything."

_We cannot waste time, _She continued as though I hadn't spoken. _I must get back to your father's palace and help prepare for war._

"But there's not going to be a war!" I yelled, throwing up my hands in frustration. The spirit smiled at me, as though my response pleased her.

_It is good to see that you are so confidante. But even if the war between your father and uncle does not happen, there is still the possibility that a war between the two sea lords will occur._

"What do you mean?" I asked, feeling a small amount of panic rising up inside me. If my father was going to war even if I found the bolt and got it back to safety, then I wanted to know if there was anything I could do to help.

_Do not worry child, your father is more than prepared for both wars. _

"I'm not worried," I said defiantly crossing my arms across my chest. The spirit laughed,

_Have I not told you? The ocean reflects your emotions; any creature living in the ocean would be able to know what you're feeling. _I sighed and lowered my arms, I had forgotten about that. _I believe we have wasted enough time chatting, there are only so many hours left, and if you are going to Olympus, you must get there before midnight on the summer solstice. _I motioned with my hands for her to continue.

_Your father wishes to give you these. _She handed my three silver pearls. _Only use these when you need to. Once they are used you won't be able to use them again. _

"Great," I said. "But how do I use them?"

_Use crush them with your feet, they will get you out of anywhere. Your father also sends me with thins message 'Whatever belongs to the sea, will return to the sea. Do not forget this' _I nodded in understanding, still confused but decided not to question my father's words.

"Anything else?" She shook her head.

_Now that I have done what was asked of me, I must leave you. These are dangerous times we live in, and you can never be too careful of what's hiding in the dark. Until next time milady. I wish you the best of luck with the rest of your quest. Just remember, not everything is as we see them; you have to look between the lines. _She began to fade, just as she had done during my dream.

"Wait!" I called out, "What do you mean?"

_Farewell my lady. _Was all I heard from her, and then she was gone.

* * *

><p>I swam upwards for a while trying to find the surface. When I found it, I breathed out a sigh of relief, happy that I hadn't gotten myself lost somehow.<p>

When my head broke the surface I was surprised to find that night had fallen. It was apparent that I had been underwater for a lot longer than I had thought. The Santa Monica beach where I had left Grover and Will standing was now a small spec in the horizon. I sighed and began swimming towards the land, using the waves to propel me forward.

Grover and Will looked up when they heard me approaching. I could just make out the footprints lining the small stretch of sand the two were sat on, it looked almost as though someone had been pacing. I figured it had been Will since he had ADHD, so it would have been difficult for him to sit still.

"Finally," Grover shouted when I stepped onto the cooling sand. "We were getting worried." He trotted over to me and gave me one of the biggest hugs I had ever gotten.

"Nice to see I was missed," I chuckled when he let me go. Will moved to take his place, his face stern.

"It's no laughing matter," He scolded while wrapping his arms carefully around me, almost as though he was worried he would hurt me. "We were worried something serious had happened to you."

"C'mon, I'm the daughter of Poseidon. I'm safer in the water than I am on land. C'mon," I said when neither of them answered me; I walked around them and moved over to where Will had dumped the bag when I had walked into the sea. After throwing it over my shoulder, I looked back at them

"We have to hurry," I said remembering the ocean spirit's words. "We're running out of time. We need to be on Olympus before midnight tomorrow."

"Midnight? Why midnight?" Grover asked.

"No clue, but when we get there you can ask the gods yourself." I answered. "Let's get outta here; we have a God to find."

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><p><strong>If you saw my AN in the last chapter, then that's basically what I want you to do. If you didn't see it basically all I want you do is tell me if I got things wrong. Since I don't live in the US I don't exactly know who close places are or where everything is. So please tell me and I'll change it as soon as possible.**

**Anyway, the next chapter is still being writen and I don't know how long it will take to write it, so I'd like to say thank you for reviewing and favouriting my story. I love looking at my emails and finding out someone thinks my story is actually worth reading. So please tell me what you think and I'll get the next chapter up as soon as possible. See you soon,**

**xWelshGirl4Lifex**


	18. Music soothes the savage beast

**I don't own Percy Janckson**

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><p>Looking for a non-existent Recording Studio during the day would have been hard. Looking for a non-existent Recording Studio at night was even harder. Especially when you were two tired demigods, and one exhausted goat boy. Just don't tell Grover I called him that, he'd probably cut off my head and serve it on a silver platter.<p>

By some miracle, any monsters in area left us alone. But that didn't make looking for the underworld any easier. More than once we had walked into the wrong places, and at one time we ended up seeing something that would probably scar the three of us for life. I'd rather not tell you what happened, so you'll have to use your imaginations, but trust me, it wasn't pretty.

The sun was beginning to rise by the time we had found the place, although a part of me was wishing that we hadn't found it at all.

On the outside, D.O.A studios looked like any normal recording studio we had passed while trying to find the place. But if you looked closely at the huge sign that hung above the glass doors, you'd be able to make out the Ancient Greek words that had been scratched into each of the letter's telling us what the place was actually called. 'Dead on Arrival', it said. Not exactly the most welcoming thing you'd see.

"This had got to be the place" I said confidently, it had to be. I really wasn't up to spending more time looking for the right place. I just wanted to get back to camp, where my nice little cabin was waiting for my return with a nice warm bed. And it would be nice to be able to see everyone again.

Will took the lead and pushed open one of the door's holding it open for Grover and I to pass through it. Grover and I looked at each other then looked back at Will. Maybe there was some other way to get to the underworld. Maybe if we were lucky we wouldn't have to go to the underworld at all.

"Sophia," Will started off slowly. "You've fought the Minotaur, furies and a Chimera; you can't seriously be scared of going to the underworld." I sighed, realized he was right. I threw my shoulder's back, and walked with as much confidence I could manage while shaking like a Chihuahua in the snow.

As I passed Will, he looked back at Grover pointedly. "If she can do it, so can you." Unfortunately, the three of us ended up having to do a replay of what happened back at the Lotus hotel. We grabbed Grover's arms and dragged him into the studio lobby.

You would have expected someone to actually notice the commotion, but that's not exactly how it happened. The relatively normal lobby was packed full of people, some were panicking, other's were calmly standing around looking at the various pictures that hung around the place, showing a lot of famous people who had died at one point or another. And I'm pretty sure that I saw one or two people actually talking to a potted plant.

Now, if you had been paying attention you would have realized that I had said 'relatively normal lobby'. The reason for this was because of the people. They were dead. As in dead, dead. Ghosts, zombies whatever the heck you want to call them. That's why most of them were panicking. I was pretty sure that most of them had only just realized that they were dead.

The three of us moved quickly up to the raised desk that sat on the other end of the lobby, trying not to make eye contact with any of the dead people.

The man behind the desk was wearing a very expensive looking black suit and tie. He had black sunglasses covering his eyes, similar to what Ares had been wearing. He had a name tag pinned to his breast pocket. I couldn't make out what it said, but it looked a lot like Chiron, or was it Charon. Knowing me, it probably said something like cannon, so I decided that it was probably best if I kept my mouth shut.

"Uh, excuse me sir," Will started but before he could continue the man cut across him.

"Name and cause of death." His voice sounded bored almost as though he had, had to say the same thing over and over again for centuries. Which he probably had.

"Uh, Grover Wilde?" Grover somehow made it seem like a question rather than a statement.

"Sophie Frost," I said following Grover's example. Will's mouth formed an 'o' as he caught onto what Grover and I were doing.

"Will," He said.

"Will?" The man waited, pen frozen above the sheet of paper as he waited for Will to continue.

"Sun," Both Grover and I looked at him like he had somehow grown an extra arm. Will Sun? Was that the best he could come up with? I thought he was a son of Apollo, weren't they meant to be good at making things up on the spot?

"Will Sun?" The man said, sounding as though he shared our disbelief. Will just shrugged as though that answered everything. The man sighed tiredly but wrote it down either way. "Cause of death?" He repeated.

"We died," I said quickly without thinking, I quickly continued when the man went to say something. "In the shower."

The man looked up from where he was writing and raised an eyebrow at me. "The three of you, died in the shower?" I nodded. "Together?" Now that he had said it out loud, I realized that it sounded a bit odd but I nodded either way.

"Allright, let's hear it." The man said putting the pen lid back on. He leant forward and waited expectedly for me to continue. From the corner of my eye I could see Will and Grover struggling not to laugh at my misfortune.

"Umm, well we had gone swimming and afterwards we went to have a shower to clean our selves off."

The man held up a hand to stop me from continuing. "Correct me if I'm wrong. But don't girls and boys shower separately?" That was a good point.

"They do, but I have bad eye sight so I hadn't realized that I had walked into the wrong place. Which is kind of how we died."

"Really?" I nodded. He turned to Will and Grover whose faces instantly sobered. "What happened next?" Grover began stuttering, not really sure what to say. But luckily Will was able to come up with something that saved our butts.

"She crashed into us, which caused us to slip on some soap which caused us to slip and we split our heads open. We died on the way to the hospital." This time the man raised both of his eyebrows.

"Really?" We nodded. "Alright take a seat. You'll reach the afterlife in about three months."

"Three months?" I shouted, starting to panic. We didn't have three months. "We have to see Hades now!"

"Why do you want to see my king?" The man asked, taking off his glasses showing his eyes. Or rather, his lack of eyes. I'm serious, he had no eyes. The place his eyes were meant to be was empty. I'm not sure how he could see us, and quite frankly I didn't want to find out why.

"It's important," Grover stuttered out

"Yeah? Well it's important that I get a raise but I don't see that happening anytime soon. Now sit down and shut up like the good little dead people you are."

"Are you blind?" I shouted, getting the atention of every ghost in the room. "On second thoughts don't answer that."

"We're not really dead," Will supplied, his voice taking on a quieter tone than the one I had used. "But we've really got to speak to Hades."

"Why should I listen to you?"

"Why?" I shouted ignoring both Will's and Grover's attempts to calm down. "How about the fact that it could stop the gods going to war! Is that a good enough reason for you?"

"I don't care if there's going to be a war or not, all I care about is getting a raise. Now since you are not dead, come back when you are dead." I growled in frustration

"If you send us away, you'll have to deal with a lot more dead people that this. This place will have a lot more dead people waiting to pass into the underworld. Do you want that? If Lord Hades is too busy dealing with so many deaths, how will he be able to give you that raise?"

The man's eyes widened in realization. It seemed that he was telling the truth about the only thing he wanted was a raise. Stepping out from behind his desk, he motioned for us to follow him.

He led us pass the dead who were now watching us with curious eyes and into a separate hallway where there was a lot less spirits were being kept in line by a red velvet rope.

"This way," We were ushered into an elevator that could be found at the front of the line. As soon as the doors slid shut, we were plunged into complete darkness.

* * *

><p>The three of us stood as far away from the man, who we know knew was Charon, as we could. The reason the elevator had been so dark. It was so we couldn't see Charon change from sort of normal appearance, to his actual appearance.<p>

Before, the only thing that wasn't normal about him before was his eyes. Now everything about him looked like he had stepped out of bizarre horror film.

His skin had literally melted away, we'd smelt it in the elevator but thought that Grover had just farted. His expensive suit and tie had disappeared, and all that was covering him was a black cloak that only just covered his bones. Every time he moved you could hear the bones knocking against each other. It was really creepy.

Charon guided us past more of the dead who were standing in line near the edge of a black river. He led us up to a boat near the front of the queue, where the dead were slowly filling into it.

"Oh no you don't," Charon said, pulling some spirits back onto shore by the scruffs of their neck. He motioned for us to step onto the old boat. In my opinion it didn't look very safe, but since it was the only way we could get to my uncles palace I stepped onto it, being careful of where I stepped something about the river didn't seem comforting and I didn't really want to fall into it.

Will stuck as close as possible to me, following where I stepped perfectly with Grover trailing behind him.

"Sit down; it gets a bit rough up river." The three of us sat down on a small bench near the edge of the boat, which Will wasn't exactly comfortable with.

The boat crept slowly along the river in silence, no dared to speak. It seemed that everywhere I looked was covered in darkness. If I concentrated on a certain spot for long enough, I was able to make out one or two human skulls, which wasn't exactly a pleasant sight.

At the moment I was busy staring intently at the water below us. I didn't like the look of it; it looked as though it was made entirely out of smoke which was impossible. I could see the soft waves the water made as we passed through it lap at the sides of the boat, which would have made it look inviting had it not been the black colour of the water.

Every so often an object of some kind would pass by, like an old pocket watch or a teddy.

"What is this place?" I whispered. I jumped in surprise at Charon's hollow voice; I hadn't expected a skeleton's hearing to be so good.

"It's the river Styx, where the damned are laid to rest and where old dreams are thrown away."

I looked away from the river, trying to ignore it as much as possible. I didn't feel safe around it like I always felt whenever I was around any other water source, I felt scared.

* * *

><p>The journey along the Styx felt like it went on for ages, and I'm pretty sure it did to. And when it did come to an end I happily breathed a sigh of relief, mainly because we could get far away from the river as possible and partly because it meant that Will could let go of my arm. He had been holding it in a death grip from the moment we had sat down on that boat.<p>

"Thanks Charon, which way do we-?" But Charon was already paddling back down river. For someone who could live forever, you would have thought that he had come up with a better way to get the dead to the right destination.

"Where to now?" I asked, finally turning away from Charon's retreating back.

"They seem to know where to go," Grover said pointing at the few ghosts that had been on the boat with us, they were walking, still in a straight line, toward some sort of gate.

"The Gates of Hades," Will whispered.

I'm sure that when they were first built they would have been beautiful, with iron bars twisted into complicated patterns, or whatever it might have looked in its original glory. Now, not so much.

You could see where the old gates had been blasted away, from the crumbling stone pillars that stood directly opposite each other. Now a huge slab of stone sat on top of these pillars, it looked dangerously close to toppling over. Five automatic signs were fitted into the stone and each varied between telling people which queue they were in to how long it would take for whoever was at the back of the queue to reach the front (On average 10 years).

Hundreds of ghosts where waiting not-so-patiently to reach the front. Only one queue seemed to be going anywhere and that was the EZ-Death line.

"This way," I said pointing towards the line. I made to move forward but Will grabbed the back of his jacket, which I was still wearing, and pulled me back.

"Before you go running off to your death, don't you think we should do something about him first?" He pointed off to the right of the EZ line, when I looked I had to take a step back.

"How did I miss that?"

'That' was a gigantic, black three headed dog. And I don't mean gigantic as in Irish wolfhound gigantic, I mean bigger than your average two story house gigantic. And I wasn't kidding about the three heads either.

"Is that-?"

"Yup," Will said, nodding at Grover's question. "That's Cerberus in all his glory."

Cerberus still hadn't noticed the three us, something we thought was very lucky, we just didn't know how long we could last before he noticed that the dead had been interrupted by three, very much alive twelve year olds.

"How are we going to get past him?" I asked as we watched the three headed dog growl at the dead as they passed him.

"Pass me the bag," Will said holding out his hands for the blue rucksack that was still on my back.

"Why?" I asked passing him the bag.

"I remember seeing something in here that might help," He said whilst digging around in the bag. "Ah ha. Found it."

He pulled out a long wooden stick.

"A stick?"

"A flute," Will corrected Grover. At our confused faces he sighed. "Haven't you ever heard the saying 'Music soothes the savage beast?'"

Both Grover and I shook our heads.

"Oh, well now you have." He told us to stay where we were and be ready to run.

Will approached the dog quietly not wanting to startle it and cause any unwanted accidents. Slowly he lifted flute and started playing. Soft music flew out of it, grabbing the attention of everyone within hearing distance, including the skeletal guards who were making sure that the dead where behaving.

I pointed this out to Grover, and I'm pretty sure his face shared the same look of panic that mine held. We looked back at Will, silently praying that his plan would work. The music was soft and gentle, it almost sounded like one of the lullabies my mom used to sing to me when I was a child. The thought made me tear up a little.

"It's working," Grover said, surprise lacing his voice.

I looked back at Cerberus, my eyes going wide when I saw the dog's big brown eyes beginning to close and his head begin to droop. All three of his mouths let out a huge yawn, making me and Grover cover our noses in disgust. Someone really needed to introduce the dog to toothpaste.

Finally, all three heads thumped to the ground fast asleep. Will lowered the flute from his mouth with a grin, pleased with his work.

"That was great Will," I started, very much aware of the skeletal guards who where advancing towards us. "But you'll have time to admire your work later, right now we've got to run."

He finally seemed to notice the guards.

"Good idea."

The three of us sprinted towards the EZ-line, avoiding the guards as much as possible while trying not to wake the now snoring guard dog. The dead flew out of our way, swearing at us in different languages.

As we passed through the barrier of the EZ-Death line, an alarm went off filling the entire underworld with shrill wails.

"Just what we need," Grover said struggling to keep up with Will and I in those shoes of his. "Now everyone in will know were here."

"I don't think that'll be much of a problem Grover," Will said casting a quick look behind his shoulder. "We've bigger issues to worry about."

A familiar cry reached our ears,

"Don't run honey, you have nowhere to hide." Did she have a problem with staying dead or what?

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><p><strong>AN Thanks again for the reviews and I'm going to say this now, yes I will be doing the rest of the books. I love writing about Sophia to much to abandon her right now. I can't wait to start writing the Sea of Monsters and I can't believe how close I am to finishing the Lightning Thief,this is the first time I have ever come close to actually finishing something. **

**I've already started planning what I'm going to be doing in the next booksbut I need some help with some things. I've put up a poll on my profile on whether I should make Rachel a girl or a boy. I know it's a bit soon but I like planning things in advance, so please check that out, and if you can't be bothered to go onto my profile and vote, just tell me in a review. Thanks in advance,**

**xWelshGirl4Lifex**


	19. I have a lovely family

**I don't own Percy Jackson**

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><p>"I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that they don't like you," Will panted as we threw ourselves behind a boulder. We had just ran about three miles to hide from the furies. One of which was dead set about killing me.<p>

"Really? What makes you say that?

"What did you do to make them so angry at you anyway?" He pressed ignoring my sarcasm.

"I might have blown one of them up on a field trip, no biggie."

"Only you seaweed brain, only you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked him whilst crossing my arms over my chest.

"It means that only you can get the attention of all three kindly ones,"

"Might I remind you that their looking for the three of us,"

"It doesn't look that way to me," I glared harshly at Will but I had to admit, it did look like they were after me. Mrs. Dodds hadn't stopped screaming at me since the moment she knew I was here. But I wasn't exactly going to tell Will that now was I?

"Then I suggest you get your eyes checked pretty boy, 'cause they're after the _three _of us. They've been after the _three _of us since we got here. "

"Then tell me why-?"

"Shut up!" Grover hissed. "Listen."

We sat in silence, listening to the familiar flapping of wings and the squawking of the three furies fade, as they flew further and further away from us.

"Are they gone yet?" I asked quietly, not wanting to gain anymore unwanted attention from anybody nearby.

"Yeah, I think so." Will nodded. I sighed and rested my head back against the grey boulder, my chest heaving from our run. We had probably crossed about half of the underworld already and we still hadn't found Hades' palace.

"Thank god, I don't think I could have run one more mile."

"Gods," Will instantly corrected making me look at him in exasperation.

"Really?"

"I'm just saying it so you don't end up dead, because I seriously think you'd want to spend more time than necessary do you?"

"Wow Will, you made me believe that you didn't care about my safety. I'm touched." I whipped away a fake tear from the corner of my eye.

"You are so annoying!" Will growled.

"Oh I'm annoying? You should lis-"

"Just Shut Up! I'm getting a head ace," Will and I looked at Grover open mouthed. In the year that I had known him, I never heard him shout. Not even when Nancy Bobofit had thrown something at him. "Can we just find Hades and get out of here. This place is giving me the creeps."

"You and me both," Will muttered. I sighed and stood up, dusting myself off.

"C'mon, we've got a god to find."

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><p>We hadn't been walking for that long when Grover somehow managed to fall flat on his face.<p>

"You okay?" Will asked, bending down to help up our fallen friend.

"I'm fine." He answered, wiping dirt off of his hands.

"What happened?" I asked, it seemed as though he had fallen over thin air.

"No clue, it was almost as though my sh- whoa!" Grover fell back onto the ground only this time his feet were stuck in the air by his flying shoes, whose wings were flapping widely.

Will and I were frozen to the spot watching Grover struggle as he tried to get his shoes off, I was trying to figure out whether I should laugh or help him. Will and I watched Grover for a while, not realizing until too late that his shoes were slowly dragging him away from us.

"We probably should help him," I said. Will looked at me weirdly and opened his mouth to say something but stopped, and shook his head.

I followed behind him as we ran after Grover at a fast pace, trying to catch him.

"Try and take the shoes off,"

"What do you think I'm doing?" Grover yelled at me, while trying to untie his sneakers with little success.

Everything either Will or I grabbed onto Grover, his sneakers pulled him harder and dragged him further away from us. He gave up trying to untie his shoes, and settled for grabbing at random things that were in the way. But each time he couldn't get a good grip on any of the rocks r dead bushes that surrounded the path.

It wasn't until we entered a small cavern that Grover was able to grab onto a boulder long enough for me to grab his arms and for Will to grab his feet and tried to help get the shoes off.

I looked around trying to figure out where we were, the surroundings looked familiar to me. But I couldn't figure it out.

A deep rumbling chuckle echoed in my head, I looked at Will and Grover but they didn't seem to notice it.

'_Help me my dear. I can give you more than what those petty fools at that camp of your can give you. Help me, and you will become greater than those pathetic gods you are forced to serve. Help me, and you will have your mother back.' _

My legs seemed to work on their own, carrying me towards the black abyss that sat behind Will. It was then that I realized where I was. It was the same place I had visited in my dreams . My legs stopped moving at my realization.

"We've got to get outta here," I said turning back to Will and Grover who were looking at me white faced. They must have noticed me moving towards the pit. Will nodded shakily casting a fleeting glance at the black pit that looked a lot bigger in real life than it did in my dreams; he whispered one word that made fear strike at every inch of my body.

"Tartarus."

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><p>I didn't mention it, but for some reason after I had picked up my bag from where I had dropped it near the pit, it seemed a lot heavier. Almost as though someone had rammed a brick into the bag while we were occupied. I didn't look in the bag because after we wrestled with Grover's lovely flying shoes, which flew into the pit as soon as they were off, we ran. Wanting to get as far away as we could from that place. I shivered whenever I thought about how close I had come to ending up in that pit myself.<p>

"What happened back there?" Will asked me once we had stopped running. I ran my hand over my forehead, collecting the beads of sweat that had grown there.

"I don't know, it was like... it was like I was a puppet and whoever was in that hole was controlling me. The only reason I stopped walking was because I recognized the place."

"How'd you recognize it? It's not like you've been there before right?" I shrugged, feeling as confused as Will sounded. Why was I dreaming of a place I had never seen before in my life?

"Not exactly,"

"What you on about?" Will asked eyebrows scrunched in confusion

"I keep seeing that pit in my dreams. The first time I saw it was in my first official night at camp, but there was someone else there as well. After that it was me and that, strange voice that came out of the pit."

"Kronos," Will muttered.

"Father of Zeus, Poseidon and Hades?"

"And Hera, Hestia and Demeter after Zeus led the gods to victory, he made sure Kronos was cut into pieces and scattered in Tartarus."

I opened my mouth to ask why I been drawn to the place, when Grover called us over to where he was standing staring at a pomegranate tree.

"Sorry to interrupt your lovely discussion, but I think we've found Hades' Palace."

"And you got that from a tree?" I asked, feeling a bit sceptic that someone would know where they were from a tree. But then again, Grover got us help from a pink poodle so I guess it shouldn't really surprise me.

"The only place in the underworld where plants can grow like this is in Persephone's garden."

"And what's that meant to do with Hades' Palace?" Will looked as though he didn't know whether to look proud or scared.

"Because Persephone's garden is in front of Hades' Palace."

The three of us turned in sink, so we were looking up the path we had just ran up to.

"How did we miss that?" I asked, looking up in amazement at the black palace that stood proudly in front of us. It's tower's looked out at the underworld, probably giving a perfect view of every single inch of Hades' realm.

The black marble door's stood proud with giant black spikes peeking out from above them, casting an ominous shadow onto the grey gravel path.

"Guess there's no turning back now." Will sighed as he led the three of us up towards the door's.

"Wait!" I called, just before we reached the dark, heavy doors, I passed each of them a pearl that the sea spirit had given me before she had disappeared. "Take these just in case. Don't do anything to them until I tell you, when the time is right I want you two to stand on them."

"Just trust me."

* * *

><p>As we approached the marble doors, they swung open slowly and silently, revealing a dark, shadowy hallway.<p>

_It's now or never,_ I thought.

Taking a deep breath, I stepped inside with Grover and Will following closely behind me. The three of us had barely taken five steps when the doors slammed behind us.

"Oh great," I heard Grover say as we were plunged into darkness.

"What now?" Will asked from somewhere to my right. The place was pitch black, if I hadn't entered the place moments before I wouldn't have known where I was.

I reached my hands out to the sides of me, trying to find my two friends. Hoping to find some sort of comfort, I'm not a big fan of the dark. But don't mix that up with me being afraid of it, I just don't like it. I sighed in relief when my hands found Grover and Will's arms.

"I guess we find some light," I answered.

As soon as I had said that, the torches that hung along the walls burst into green flames. Causing the three of us to cover our eyes to hide from the sudden brightness, although Will wasn't affected as much as Grover and I were, probably another perk of being the son of Apollo.

"Come closer children." A deep, powerful voice beckoned from the end of the hall.

Looking up slowly, my eyes caught sight of a tall, pale man dressed from head to toe in black. His oily hair hung to just below his shoulders and his pure black eyes shone with anger and hatred. A black cloak covered his body, and if you looked hard enough, you'd be able to see faces, each frozen in either fear or pain.

He didn't do anything, just sat there on his onyx throne watching us as we moved forward so we were standing directly in front of him. Slowly, we sank to our knees. Bowing our heads in respect to the man in front of us. I might be new to the whole Gods exist thing, but I didn't need a child of Athena, or an annoying son of Apollo to tell me who was sitting on the throne.

Even I could tell that this man was my uncle. Lord Hades, King of the Underworld, God of the dead. And even I could tell that this God was furious.

"I hope, for your sakes, that you have come here with an apology."

"What do you mean milord?" Will asked, deciding to take the risk that neither Grover or I were willing to take.

The green flames that lit the long, marble room rose violently until flames were licking the ceiling, but somehow not setting the place on fire. Hades was now on his feet, glaring harshly at us.

"You know exactly what I mean." He yelled, he slowly walked down the two steps that led up to his throne so now he was standing in front of us. "You think you can enter my domain and accuse me of stealing my brother's symbol of power after you stole my own."

From the corners of my eye's I saw Grover and Will glance at me, as though expecting me to explain why we were being yelled at for something we hadn't done.

"There must be a mistake milord. This is the first time we've been to the underworld. And I've only known who I am for about three weeks now. So it couldn't have been us." I explained, trying to keep my voice as loud and as clear as possible, so it didn't show how scared I actually was.

"If it wasn't you then who was it?" I gulped at the sight of the seething God.

"That's what we're trying to find out." Grover's shaky voice answered.

"The Oracle sent us here, we were told that we were to "Go west and face the god who has turned." We assumed it was you." Will explained.

"Well you assumed wrong." The God of the dead exploded. "As the son of Apollo I thought you would have already known that Prophecies can have double meanings."

Will looked down at the ground as though Hades' words had upset him, which they probably had. But this didn't stop Hades'.

"And now you come here with my brother's lightning bolt and try to accuse me of stealing it!"

Angered by his words, I shot to my feet, ignoring any rules there were about treating a God with respect.

"We haven't got the master bolt! How dare you accuse us of being thieves." I said, my voice raising as I got angrier at my so called uncle.

"How dare I? You're the ones entering my realm believing that I stole the master bolt and cause any order that kept my subjects in line disappear, so that everything is now chaotic. Every single member of my army is busy trying to make sure that the spirits don't cause any trouble. After all this, you expect me to believe that you didn't steal my Helm of Darkness or Zeus' master bolt?"

I nodded quickly with wide eyes. As his temper rose, the ground shook. Seeming to take Hades' answer out on the poor mortals up above.

The God leant in closer to me so that now I could feel his stale breath on my face.

"If you did not steal them, then who did?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out milord," Grover's shaky voice answered.

"Well now that you know I am innocent, there is no point in you staying here is there? I suggest you leave before I send someone after you. I'll probably be seeing you in a few day's anyway what with a war about to start and all."

"Actually milord, there's something else we came here for."

"There is?" I turned to Will and nodded in answer to his question.

"You see," I started turning back to the God who was staring at me intently. I started moving from foot to foot, a mixture of nervousness and ADHD. "My mom died protecting me, and I believe that it should have been me who died that night. And I was wondering if you were willing to do a trade. My life for hers."

"What? No you can't-"

"Sophia that's stupid! Think for a moment-"

Will and Grover's protests were stopped by Hades who raised his hand, signalling for silence.

"As noble as that is, I'm afraid that's impossible as you're mother is not dead."

"That's not possible," I said shaking my head. "I saw her die with my own eyes. The minotaur killed her."

"She disappeared in a gold light did she not?" I nodded "Then she is not dead. I should know, I save her."

"What? Why?"

"I figured that if you decided to bring my Helm back, I'd give you and you're mother a chance to get out of here alive. What happened to your friends does not bother me. The gods-including myself- find you interesting, we think it would be entertaining to see how you're life play's out. Who know you might get lucky and Zeus may spare you."

"You're getting off track," I interrupted. "Let's get back to my mother for a second. She's alive?"

"Yes. I already said that did I not?"

"I don't understand why you would keep her here though?"

"I already told you, she was to be a reward to you for giving me back my Helm. But since you do not have, I think I might keep her here for a while longer."

"You cruel b-"

"Sophia! I think it'd be a good idea to shut up about now." I glared at Will and he instantly shrunk back. He and Grover were no longer kneeling and were now watching my exchange with Hades carefully. As though waiting for a good moment to step in and stop me from doing something stupid.

"I don't believe you," I looking back at Hades trying to stop myself from punching him. "I think you're just using my mom as bait. She did die that night, I know she did."

"Is that so?" Hades drawled. "Then tell me, who is this?"

He snapped his fingers and an orange stone rose out of the ground from the left of us. Slowly it expanded before slowly morphing into the shape of a human. More specifically, my mother.

"Mom," I breathed before running over to her stone encased body and placed a hand over her own, where it had been frozen as though trying to stop someone from attacking her. "What did you do to her?"

"I simply encased her in citrine so that she would need the things that mortals need to be able to survive. Such as water and food."

"Let her go." I ordered moving away from my mother to stand in front of my deranged uncle.

"I don't think I will,"

"Listen here, if you don't let her go, I'll-"

"You'll what? What could you possible do to a God?"

My mouth opened and closed, but no words came out. What could I do? I couldn't challenge him to a duel. He had more experience than me in fighting and had more powers than me so I'd have no chance in beating him.

Hades smirked triumphantly, and moved away from me and glided back towards his onyx throne.

I looked back when I felt someone pulling on my jacket (Will's jacket really, but I was wearing it.) Will was pointing towards his watch, and when I looked more closely at the small hands. I realized with a start it had just gone noon. We were running out of time, and we definitely had no chance of getting to New York if we were going to stay here and argue with Hades. We had to get going.

I looked back at my mother with sad eyes, I didn't want to leave her. But I knew I had to if I was going to get out of here alive. I looked back at Grover and Will and nodded. Stepping up to them so I was standing between them, I took the pearl that was given to me by that sea spirit and motioned to Will and Grover to do the same.

I place the pearl on the floor by my foot and watched as Grover and Will did the same, I looked back at my mother. Silently promising to come back for before whispering to Grover and Will to stamp on the pearl. I looked back at Hades, letting him know with my eyes that I would be back before standing on the pearl myself.

I watched as a milky white bubble closed around me. Matching the ones that had already closed around Grover and Will, and were now carrying them towards the ceiling. I watched in horror as their bubbles carried them higher upwards towards the spiked ceiling. I watched as they struggled against their bubbled, trying to get them to pop. Probably deciding it was better to die from falling from a height than being impaled. I started struggling to as mine started to climb as well, quickly catching up to the boys.

As we got closer I closed my eyes, waiting for the pain to arrive. When it didn't, my right eye opened and then slowly my left did to. Instead of seeing the black spikes that hung above Hades' palace, I saw the ocean's floor. And slowly the surface came into view.

It was then that I remembered the sea spirits words. Although it was a bit too late to tell Will and Grover.

_Whatever belongs to the sea shall return to the sea._

I probably should have mentioned that.

* * *

><p><strong>AN Sorry for the long wait, but my exams sort of took over my life for a moment. I have two more GCSE exams to sit (Chem and Physics) but then I have normal exams to sit so I have double the pressure. If it takes a while for me to upload again, please bare with me I'll get a chapter up eventually and since I'm so close to finishing this story I really want to finish it so I can start the next chapter. And since I start work tomorrow for the first time, I won't know how much of my time it will take up. Hopefully it won't me alot because I'll only be working Saturday's and I'm not even working a full day so finger's crossed.**

**And once again, like I said in the last chapter there's a poll on my profile on whether Rachel should be a girl or a boy in the Titans cure and for future stories so please take a minute to answer that. And if you can't be botherd to go to my profile to do, you can review to tell me.**

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed and I hope you'll all be patient until my next upload. **

**Until then, Ciao!**


	20. The Olympians

**A/N Percy Jackson, and anything that sounds familiar to you belongs to Rick Riordan**

* * *

><p>As soon as our heads broke the surface, Will instantly gabbed my arm to stop himself from drowning. Although it didn't do much, he still kept sinking.<p>

"Just kick your legs," I told him once I had helped him resurface. "Gently!" I added once he had started to kick furiously at the water, managing to kick me in the shins more than once.

I sighed in frustration and told him to copy Grover and give me five minutes of peace so I could figure out where we were. I squinted my eyes at the stretch of land in the distance and smiled in relief as I recognized it.

"We're not that far from Santa Monica. Think you can swim there?" I asked, pointing in the direction of shore.

"Not all the way, I can probably get half way, maybe less, I don't know." Grover answered.

"I can't swim,"

"You don't say." I said to Will, my voice dripping with sarcasm. "I never would have guessed. After all, you haven't let go of my arm since those bubbles burst so I haven't been able to tell if you can or can't swim."

"Then why did you ask?"

"Maybe I can propel us some of the way, but I can't do it all of the way because if there are some mortals on the beach they might find it strange."

"That's a good point. Do you think we can find a place where there won't be mortals?" Grover asked.

"It would probably be difficult, but it's worth a shot."

* * *

><p>It wasn't easy as the beach was full of people who had made sure to cover every inch of the beach as possible. But eventually, I managed to find a part of the beach where we could step onto land safely with questioning glances from the crowd of people gathered.<p>

The place where I had dropped us off was covered in rock pools so there wasn't anyone around so we were able to get a few moments of peace.

When I was sure no one was watching us, I quickly placed my hands on Grover and Will's wrists and dried them off. They said their thanks and Grover asked me how we were going to get to New York, it was now 12:30 and we were running out of time. Before I could answer, a familiar, gruff voice sounded from behind us.

"Y'er not getting to New York anytime today."

Will's hands automatically clenched at the sound of the God of War's voice, he audibly ground his teeth together, probably making sure that he wouldn't say something that could get him killed by the god.

"And why's that?" I asked the god who was leaning on his bike, trying to keep my frustration hidden.

"Because I won't let you."

"What have we ever done to you?" Will growled at the smirking god.

"Nothing," The god answered shortly

"Then what do you want?" Will asked once more, still glaring at the god.

"The lightning bolt"

I sighed in frustration and ran my hand through my hair; trying not to scream so I didn't draw any unwanted attention from the people on the beach.

"Why do people keep asking me that? _I don't have it!" _The god let out a humourless laugh.

_"_I think you'll find that you do." He said still chuckling.

"I think you'll find that she doesn't" Will snapped, coming to my defence.

"If you don't have it, then what's in the bag?"

I looked at the bag on my shoulder, and lowered it onto the sandy floor. It felt just as heavy as it had been when I picked it up beside Tartarus.

I looked at the god sceptically, not believing that I had been carrying the master bolt since we left for Vegas. I knelt to the ground slowly, waiting for someone to jump out and say that this was all a joke and that we could all go home. Sadly, it did not happen.

Unzipping the bag, I was greeted by a burst of electricity flying up to my face. I only just managed to move away in time, managing to not get hit in the face. Not wanting to be hit by anymore unexpected bursts of golden electricity, I slowly and carefully peered into the bag, hoping that the lightning bolt wouldn't be in the bag.

But of course, things never seem to like going my way. So naturally, the lightning bolt _was _in the bag. Resting comfortably between a couple bottles of water and a packet of unfinished Oreo's.

"I told you it was there, but what did you say?" His voice took on a higher pitch as he tried to mimic my voice. "Why doesn't anyone understand? I don't have the lightning bolt, I've never had it. I'm only on this quest to clear my father's name and save his pathetic butt."

"I never said that," I snapped, my anger slowly rising. From the corner of my eye, I could see the waves on the ocean growing in both strength and size. The ocean was getting angry. I don't know whether it was because my father was listening in and he heard the pathetic butt comment, or, remembering what that sea spirit had said, if it was me. But I didn't have time to figure out which of us was controlling the waves.

People were slowly crawling out of the ocean, not wanting to get swept out to sea with the current. Some had even began to notice three kids having a standoff with a big, burly biker. Some turned away, not really interested in what was happening while others watched with curious eyes.

"Just because you didn't say it, doesn't mean you didn't think it."

"I didn't even think that,"

"Somehow I don't believe that," Ares smirked.

"I think I know what I think about thank you very much."

"You can keep saying that, but it doesn't make it the truth."

"What do you know about truth?" Will snapped, glaring harshly at the god.

"I could ask the same about you,"

"He's the son of the God of truth," Grover snapped, speaking up for the first time since the god appeared. "And pretty powerful one at that, it would be near impossible for him not to be able to tell when someone is lying or not."

"And what do you know about the mater satyr?" Ares asked, turning his glare towards Grover. "You can't even stand up for yourself unless there is someone there to protect you."

Grover's shoulder's visibly sagged, and he turned his eyes towards the ground in shame. My anger reached its peak, and the ocean's water turned a murky grey.

"Okay that's enough," I yelled, drawing my sword and levelling it at the God. "I don't know what we've done to you, but at the moment we're running out of time. And since my mother's life depends on us getting to New York, I'd appreciate it if people didn't stand in my way."

"You can't fight a god," Ares said, his voice dropping to a whisper.

"I'll do anything if it means getting the people I love to safety." My voice copying the same quiet tone he had adapted.

"You shouldn't have told me that,"

"And why not?"

"You'll know soon enough. Now give me the lightning bolt, and we can all be on our way." He held out his hand as though expecting me to just hand it over.

"I can't do that," He raised an eyebrow at me.

"And why not?"

"Because I'd actually like to live."

"And you believe that by not giving me the lightning bolt, you'll live longer?"

"Pretty much," I nodded. "We're gonna leave now, so we'll see you on Olympus. Have a nice day." With a wave, Grover, Will and I turned our backs on the God and made our way towards the steep stairs that would lead us away from the beach. I was about to cap my sword to return it to its original form, when Grover and Will, who were in front of me, stopped short.

"What's wrong?" I asked, and the voice I had thought I had left behind me sounded from in front of me.

"You would think that it was common sense to not turn your back on a god unless you are dismissed."

"I was under the impression that we were dismissed." Will growled.

"Sadly, you were incorrect. Now," Ares started, looking directly at me. "Or I'll take it from you by force."

I shrugged the bag, which I had put back on when we tried to leave, and held it in front of me.

"If you want it, come and get it."

The god looked at me confused, but none the less came forward for the bag, pushing Will and Grover to the ground in the process. Just as he was about to grab the bag off me, I threw it behind me, letting the bag rest in the water behind me knowing that my father wasn't going to grab it and drag it down into the ocean.

Ares looked at me in stunned silence as I levelled my sword with his face.

"No matter what some people believe," I cast a look over to Will who was helping Grover up from the ground. "I'm not stupid. I know you put that lightning bolt in the bag. But what I want to know is why did you put it there? And why did it only appear when we reached Tartarus?"

"If what your saying is true and you're not as stupid as we thought, then I sure you'll figure it out." He smirked yet again. "Now because I'm a gentleman, I'm not going to fight you. Just give me the lightning bolt, and they won't get hurt." He nodded his head in the direction of the growing crowed. A lot of people were watching with different expressions of fear, curiosity and worry. Some even had their cell phones out and pressed to the sides of their heads.

"You, a gentleman?" I scoffed at the idea. "You don't seem like one. And I'm not going to give you the bolt and that's final. If you want it, you're going to have to go through me."

I heard Will groan in frustration, and saw him waving his arms like crazy behind Ares. Silently telling me to back out now. But of course, me being me, didn't listen.

"So be it." The god lifted his sun glasses off of his face, revealing where should have been eyes, where black pits with miniature fires burning in them. It was really creepy to look at, but I did my best to stand my ground. Especially when his sword and shield appeared out of thin air.

We stared at each other for a few seconds, waiting until someone moved. It seemed to me that everyone on the beach was waiting with bated breath for someone to move, me included. I'm not sure what the mortals could see, but I'm sure It couldn't be as bad as to people, one a child and one a grown man, standing with swords point at each other's faces.

Eventually, the tension go to me and I made the first move, which really wasn't helping my case about me not being as stupid as people say.

Ares easily blocked me attack and counted with one of his own which I only just managed to dodge. He attacked again, and again, and again. Each time I could only just manage to defend myself. I could see myself only being able to defend myself, which if I was fighting against normal people I would have been able to wait until the person attacking got tired. But since Ares wasn't normal, I had a feeling it would take a lot longer to tire him out, I'd probably end up collapsing from exhaustion before he did. In fact, by the time I collapsed, I'm pretty sure he'd only just start panting.

We carried on like this for quite some time, with me trying to attack him myself every so often, only to find out that it was futile. Eventually it came to me trying to push him back and keep him away from the sea, but unfortunately, he figured out what I was doing and started pushing me back towards the water. Which, as soon as I realized what he was doing, wasn't such a good idea on his part.

I decided to concentrate on our swords, making sure I knew when to parry, attack and when to counter his attacks. It was going well and I hadn't dropped dead yet so I figured I should be thankful for that.

I could feel myself getting closer and closer to the water, and I figured that Ares would have no chance if I could get at least ankle deep in the water. Sadly, I got distracted.

I could see camera's flashing from the corner of my eye, and the annoying voices of reporters chatting avidly to camera's letting people who could not be on the beach today, what was going on.

"As you can see," I heard one woman say. "Sophia Jackson is trying to talk to a biker, who we are now being reliably informed, was the biker who she was seen speaking to last Friday afternoon at the small dinner just outside of St. Louis.  
>"From what spectators have heard, it seems that what we were told about Sophia Jackson were untrue. It appears that this 'biker' is holding the young girl's mother hostage, and is the reason for Sally Jackson's missing body. It seems that the young girl was only doing what she could to save her mother.<br>"Police have said that they cannot intervene as they fear they could harm the young girl's life. All they can do now is wait until they are able to apprehend the man and save Sophia Jackson's life."

My short distraction was enough for Ares to push me to the ground and held his sword to my neck, whereas my own sword lay discarded just out of my reach having been knocked out of my hand when I was pushed to the ground.

"Rule number one, never get distracted." I looked up at the smug god, trying to put as much distance between the tip of his five foot long black sword, and my neck. Panting, I replied.

"Too bad I don't like rules,"

Quickly turning onto my side, and somehow missing the gleaming sword I managed to knock Ares' sword out of his hand and sent it flying across the sand. It skidded to a halt in front of the open mouthed mortals.

I reached for my sword and spun in a wise circle before pointing it at the bewildered Ares.

"Leave Ares," I said, looking at the god as fiercely as I could.

"You don't command me." He growled.

"I know I don't, but you and I both know I have the upper hand. So why don't you save yourself any further embarrassment and leave."

"I wish it was as easy as that," I rolled my eyes in frustration. I guessed that he wasn't going to leave that easily. "You see, I really need the lightning bolt."

"And I don't care." He glared.

"How about a trade?" I raised an eyebrow, signalling for him to continue. He strutted over to his bike, throwing Will and Grover a glare as he passed them, and pulled something out of a bag that appeared around his handle bars. After he mover so that he was back to standing in front of me, he threw what has in his hands at me.

Dropping riptide, I grabbed the object before it flew into me. I ripped the brown fabric the concealed the object and gasped as black metal touched my skin.

I recognized it from when Annabeth had been showing me pictures of the God's symbol's of power. It was identical to one of the image in Annabeth's massive book, right down to the onyx trim that casted a shadow of the wear's eyes.

Hades' Helm of Darkness.

"It was you," I whispered. "You stole them."

"No, I only looked after them. I was told to give you the bolt but that's it."

"If you gave the bolt to me, why do you want it back?" He shrugged.

"Why else? For power. The master bolt is more powerful than the mortal nuclear bomb. With it, I would be unstoppable. Now give it to me."I stepped back a crazed look crossed Ares' face. He was starting to scare me.

I sighed in relief as I felt the cool water of the sea touch my feet. Strength coursed through me, and the energy that I had lost fighting Ares swept through me, giving me new confidence. Looking over to Grover and Will who were looking at me with pleading eyes, I got an idea.

I looked down at the helm in my hands pointedly before looking back at Will, I had to make sure that this was caught by the right person. It's not that I didn't trust Grover; I just knew that he wasn't very good at catching things.

Will nodded, signalling that he was ready, so I threw the helm with as much strength as I could towards him, and sighed in relief as he caught it.

I looked back at Ares with a smirk.

"Thanks for that, you just helped me clear my name with Hades." I felt the familiar weight of my sword returning to my pocket, and I instinctively slipped my hand into the jacket.

The God roared in anger and charged with outstretched arms, probably intending to strangle me. I heard the gasps of horror of the unfortunate bystander's and the voiced of the reporter taking to the camera, informing people at home what was going on. I could see the horrified faces of Grover and Will as the God got closer, but I blocked them out. I just concentrated on the approaching God and kept my eyes on his burning ones.

When he was in arms reach, and just before his scarred fingers clamped around my neck, I jumped.

I used the water to push myself up over Ares' head and dragged it down so that when I landed, Ares got an unplanned shower. I whipped my pen out of my pocket and uncapped it so it returned to its original form. I swung it in front of me so I managed to cut Ares' heels and managed to draw the golden blood that all gods bled.

Ares looked down at his heels in surprise, as though the mere thought of someone making him bleed was unheard of.

"Awwww, has the little god got a boo boo."

The god once again growled, only this time he summoned his sword, which still lay untouched in the sand. The sword materialized in his hand and he lifted it above his head, preparing to bring in down on my head.

I didn't flinch; I just stood there, watching. I'll admit, it wasn't a great idea, but I wanted to keep my dignity. I doubt that he would ever let it go if I ran, and if I didn't want to run towards the shallow water because I didn't want to become dependent on water to save my life.

I just stood, gripping my sword, waiting for the blow. Only, it didn't come. Ares was frozen on the spot, sword still above his head. He had his head cocked to the side, almost as though he was listening for something. Refusing to let my guard down, I watched him with cautious eyes. Waiting for him to do something.

With a disgruntled groan, he lowered his sword and opened his jacket partially, showing off his, as much as I hate to say it, impressive muscles. He pressed his sword up against the side of his jacket and I watched as it melted into the seams.

"You might have one this battle, but it isn't over." The god growled before marching over to his bike and re-covered his eyes with his tinted glasses. "One day, you will need you're sword. And when you do, it won't grant you the help you need. Every time you lift you're blade, you will feel my curse. You have made an enemy today godling, I suggest you watch your back."

He swung his leg over the side of the bike and revved the engine. Looking to his left he smirked at the site of police officers running towards him, guns at the ready. Spinning the bike around, he sped off towards them causing them to scatter out of fear for their own lives.

"Sophia, look away!" I heard Grover yell as the God began to glow. Turning away so I faced Grover and Will I closed my eyes.

From behind my closed eyelids, I could see a bright light. I scrunched my eyes tighter and brought a hand up to block the glare of the light. When it passed I opened my eyes and looked around. Only to be tackled by two bodies.

Struggling to regain my balance, I wrapped my arms around the two boys who were close to cutting off my air supply.

"Start crying," Will whispered in my ear. "I have a plan."

* * *

><p>As it was, Will's plan was to use the fact that I was crying to get us a ride back to New York as soon as possible. Apparently, when grown adults, especially men, see a young girl cry because she wants to see her family, they'd do anything they could to help.<p>

Before we boarded our plane, we were approached by Mrs. Dodds -I was still trying to figure out why she wouldn't stay dead – who claimed that Hades had seen the entire thing, and wished to have his helm back. After giving to her, she sent me one last glare with the promise that she'd be back for me, and that wasn't in a good way.

For the entire ride, I concentrated on stopping the blood flow in Grover and Will's hands, praying that my uncle wouldn't blast me out of the sky.

We landed in New York at 10:30. Which meant the we had an hour and a half until midnight. We ended up running through the airport and rushed as quickly as possible through customs, and hoped we'd be able to get a taxi.

"Get us to the Empire State Building as quickly as possible." Will ordered as the three of us quickly jammed into the taxi. I threw the Lotus Casino card at the driver and watched as he had the same reaction to the cabbie back in Las Vegas.

"Okay, so Grover and I will head back to camp and let them know we're alive while you go and stop our parents from killing each other." I shook my head.

"No, I have a feeling I'm going to need one of you there with me."

"Why?" Grover asked curiously

"Have you met me?" I shot back.

"Fair point," He answered. "How about this, I'll head back to camp, while you and Will have a chat with the counsel."

"Why me?" Will asked

"Because you're the son of the God of truth. And there more likely to believe you than a satyr."

"That's true," I said. "And you've been there before."

"I've been to Olympus before as well you know."

"Not helping Grover," I looked at him pointedly and he shut up.

"Alright fine, but if the gods kill us I'm blaming you."

I smiled and nodded. Either way, that was a yes, and I wasn't going to Olympus alone.

* * *

><p>It took an hour, AN HOUR, to get to the Empire State Building. No matter how much we shouted at the cabbie, he wouldn't speed up.<p>

After Grover wished us good luck, and promised he'd give me the Lotus Casino card back we headed inside the massive building. Will automatically went up to the man behind the counter and started speaking to him in hushed tones that steadily became louder.

"I know there's a 600th floor, I've been there." I heard Will yell as quietly as he could. "So I suggest you give me the key because if you don't World War 3 will break out."

The guard scoffed but handed Will a golden key which he pulled off from around his neck.

"No need to be dramatic. Use the service elevator."

Will nodded and motioned with his head for me to follow him. Reaching the elevator, Will pressed the up button and slid into the small space once the doors had opened.

"I was expecting something more exciting," I said, indicating the steel grey walls of the small, square room we were stood in. Will said nothing, but place the golden key into the key hole that sat beneath the buttons then gripped onto the rail that trailed around the entire square space.

The elevator jerked suddenly and shot up the building, causing me to fall to the ground.

"You could have warned me," I growled at the now smirking blonde.

"You wanted something exciting and you got it." I glared at the back of his head and grabbed the rail above me to lift myself up.

We stood in silence for a few seconds, listening to 'Staying Alive' as it played over the speakers, before I decided to break the silence.

"Is there anything I should know now?"

"About what?" Will asked, turning to face me.

"The gods, especially Zeus. Like how I'm meant to act."

"Just don't act the way you did with Hades and Ares. You won't get anywhere. Especially when it's your life on the line."

"I figured that much out for myself thanks."

"If you already knew that, why did you ask?"

"I meant is there anything I'm meant to do?" He made a sound of recognition

"The key thing is, I guess to bow to Zeus first. Everything else should just fall into place" I nodded, and we fell into silence.

Way too soon for my liking, the elevator came to a stop and the familiar ding of a bell indicated that we had came to our floor. Taking a deep breath I strode confidently out of the confined space behind Will and looked around.

Olympus was breath taking. There was a mixture of marble and golden temples dotted around the city. Each temple had its own original feature which could be used to identify whose temple it was. Like Hecate, hers was an explosion of colours that seemed to spark with an energy that could only be described as magic.

The cobbled road was lined with gold, and statues of the Gods of the Olympian counsel lined the road which split so that it lead off into opposite directions. Despite being close to midnight, Gods and Goddesses walked around, chatting with each other. Very few actually looked our way, but those who did looked at me with a mixture of sympathy, curiosity, hatred and anger.

Although, it ended up being mainly anger as me and Will ended up having to push our way through the horde of immortals – going as far as to cause some to fall over – so we would be able to stop the war that people were already getting ready for at that moment.

"We have 25 minutes to get to the throne room." Will called to me as we ran.

"And where's that?" He pointed ahead of us and my steps faltered. He had to be joking.

A huge temple stood out and above every living thing in Olympus, and I mean that quite literally. There must have been thousands of steps we needed to climb to reach the stupid thing. If we made it in twenty minutes it would be one heck of a miracle.

The steps wound up around a steep hill that led up to the ancient marble temple, and by the time we had gotten halfway up I was already gasping for air.

"How much longer?" I gasped

"Ten more minutes." Will stated from a little bit in front of me, he was almost gasping for air as much as I was, but you could tell from looking at him that he was used to this amount of exercise.

"Shoot," Picking up the pace I overtook him and sprinted up the stairs as much as I could while ignoring the slight pain in my chest from lack of oxygen.

"Wait up!" Will shouted from behind me. And pretty soon, the two of us were racing to reach the throne room in time.

* * *

><p>"One minute," Will gasped while looking at the watch on his hand. I sighed in relief and wiped the sweat off my forehead. We had just made it. "You ready?"<p>

"Let's get this thing over with," Straitening up we looked at each other before moving towards the 100 feet tall oak door and together, we pushed on the heavy door's to open them.

The room was rectangular and looked a lot bigger on the inside than it did on the outside. On one side of the room was a massive hearth with a fire burning away at piles of wood that had been stacked on the grate. The other side of the room, a window took up the entire wall, giving a spectacular view of the city below us. And in the centre, sat the gods.

They sat in a horseshoe shape, something I noticed looked exactly like the way the cabins at camp were laid out. Each god sat on a golden throne that was about twenty feet tall whereas them themselves must have been a foot smaller. And each one of them, except for twp, were looking at us angrily. I had a feeling we had interrupted something important.

Will took a step forward, so I followed, making sure that I kept by his side. We reached the foot of the throne of a man dressed in a black pin stripped suit with a neatly trimmed beard and blue eyes that sparked with electricity, and knelt.

"So," My uncle started lazily. "You're the daughter of my dear brother. I was expecting something more impressive."

I winced at his jab and dug my nails into my hand, forcing myself not to say anything, as it turned out, I didn't have to.

"Zeus," A calming voice warned. Looking up, my eyes caught ones that looked exactly like mine. A small smile graced the man's lips, but I ignored it and just looked up into the eyes of my uncle. If I could help it, I would ignore the man that was supposed to be my father. The man who walked out on my mother. The man who hadn't even bothered to visit me.

"I believe you have something to say?" My uncle continued in the same monotone voice he had used to great me.

"Yes," I answered shortly and stood up. Not caring that I hadn't been told I could stand. "I know what you think, but I'm not the lightning thief."

Almost instantly the large room was full of voices of angry Gods arguing with each other, I could tell the room was split. Half of them believed me, and half of them didn't.

"SILENCE!" Thunder boomed outside as the thunderous voice of the King of the Gods was heard above everyone else. The immortals quieted but stood standing as they had leapt from their chairs during the argument. Zeus turned his stormy eyes back to me.

"And why should we believe you?"

"Because I didn't even know I was a half-blood until three weeks ago, and after that all I did was train. I didn't leave Camp Half Blood. And I have never even seen Poseidon until today."

"If you are not the thief," Zeus spat. "Then why do you have the bolt?"

I gulped, I had a feeling that he wouldn't take well to his son betraying him. Reaching into the blue bag, I pulled out the object that had gotten me into so much trouble these past few days.

"Because it was given to me," I threw the bolt up towards Zeus who held up a hand a grasped it as it fell straight into his palm. The electric charged weapon grew until it was only just smaller than me. "I got this bag as a reward and when we got near Tartarus it appeared in the bag."

"So it's a sheath then? The bag I mean." A clear, strong voice came from my left and I turned to see a familiar looking woman. Athena. Annabeth would be pleased to know that she looked almost identical to her mother.

Zeus ignored her and concentrated on me.

"You said the bag was given to you. By who exactly?"

"Ares."

At the sound of his name, said god glared ferociously at me.

"She's lying. I did nothing of the sort."

At this Will stood up by my side and looked Zeus straight in the eyes.

"She not lying, I was there I saw everything. He almost killed her, claimed that he was doing it for power and called Lord Poseidon pathetic."

Poseidon turned and glared at Ares, his eyes changing until it matched the colour of the ocean during a violent storm, it actually looked pretty intimidating and I wondered if that was how I looked when I got angry.

"Poseidon, Ares and Apollo stay behind. The rest of you leave."

I glanced at Will as the gods slowly left the tall room, casting final glances at the six of left in the room.

"If I may father, why am I here?" Zeus looked at Apollo and raised a single eyebrow.

"I would have assumed that you would have liked to see the fate of your son. If he has lied to me, he would have to share a similar fate to my brother's dear daughter."

"She didn't do –"

"He's telling the –"

"Enough," Zeus booming voice echoed around the almost empty room. "I shall decide their fates once I hear my son's version."

We all turned and looked at Ares who was busy picking at his nails with a dagger.

"What?" He snapped when he realized we had been watching him.

"Why are these demigods claiming that you just handed my lightning bolt to them?" Zeus asked whilst leaning back in his chair with a bored expression plastered on his face.

"How should I know? I didn't know the bolt was in the bag, and if I had, I would have brought it straight back to you."

"Thank you Ares," Zeus stated and turned back to Poseidon who still had his eyes on me. "You see how easy it is brother when people co-operate?"

"But he's lying father," Apollo protested.

"Considering you're son's life is at risk here Apollo, I don't believe that you don't actually have much of an argument."

"But father, he-"

"I swear on the river Styx that everything we said about Ares was true. He did attack Sophia when she was trying to protect the bolt, he did claim that he wanted it for power and he did give it to us." Will's voice interrupted his father's and thunder boomed outside once he had finished speaking.

His words seemed to have some effect on them as they looked at him for about a second with wide eyes, before turning and looking at Ares' scowling face.

"_You _stole my lightning bolt?" Zeus' voice had gone deathly quiet, and each word sent shivers of fear down my spine. And it seemed I wasn't the only one affected. Ares had turned bone white as his blood drained from his face and his eyes widened slightly at the sound of his father's voice.

"What? No, no that's not what happened." Ares stuttered, sounding genuinely afraid for the first time ever since I had known him.

"Then who did?" Zeus asked in that same chilling voice.

"I-I d-don't know."

"How can you not know who stole my bolt since it was in your possession in the first place?" Zeus bellowed. Ares opened his mouth to answer only to but couldn't as his father continued. "You cannot be that unobservant! Who gave you the bolt?"

"I don't know! Someone gave it to me when I went to get my shield back. I don't know who gave it to me because when I think back everything is black."

"Leave, we'll continue this later."Ares' stormed out of the room but as he passed Will and I he glared heatedly at the two of us before continuing on his way.

Zeus turned so he was looking directly at us then started to shrink until he was the height of an average adult man. He strode over to us and looked me in the eyes.

"As much as I hate to say it," He sighed and winced slightly as though what he was about to do was physically painful. "But thank you, and I'm sorry."

"Did I hear correctly?" Apollo started, a grin slowly slipping onto his face. "Did the almighty Zeus apologize to two young demigods?"

The God scowled at his son but didn't say anything, he just raised his prized mast bolt up into the air and we watched as a bolt of lightning shot up into the air before it came crashing down onto its master. And in a flash of light, he was gone.

"I've always said he should have been the god of theatrical arts." Poseidon chuckled. A clash of thunder and lightning was his answer and he stopped laughing.

He looked down at me with sombre eyes and spoke quickly to Apollo in rapid Greek. He spoke to quickly for me to understand, but the blonde god seemed to understand his request.

Apollo shrunk down to human height and walked passed Will and I. As he passed, he motioned with his head for Will to follow him and left with his son trailing after him. I gave Will a pleading look, but he just shrugged apologetically and left.

"You've found a good friend in him," I heard my father say. I nodded slowly and looked down at my shoes while stuffing my hands into the pockets of my jacket.

"I know," I muttered.

The faint smell of ocean breeze reached my nose and a hand on my shoulder caused me to look up. My father had copied my uncle's and cousin's idea and had shrunk down so I didn't have to look up that far just to see his face.

"Thank you, for doing the quest."He said sincerely. "It means a lot to me, and you will be rewarded."

"I just want my mom back."

"I'll see to it that it's done,"

I just nodded in answer, even though I wanted to jump around like an idiot. At the moment, I just wanted to leave.

"I know how you feel about me, and I know that I cannot change it. But I want you to know that I am very proud of you."

"Why don't I believe you then?" I said, trying to hide any traces of emotions.

"You're angry at me." He stated

"No, really? What gave you that idea?" I said, sarcasm lacing my voice.

"Can I ask what I did?"

"Nothing," I answered simply. Poseidon scrunched his eyebrows together. "You did _nothing_. Not once did you ever visit me. You were never there to comfort me; you were never there when I needed you. All I ever wanted growing up was my father, but he was never there. Why weren't you there?"

Poseidon sighed and ran his hand through his. Something, I realised, that I did when I was agitated.

"I wanted to be,"

"Then why weren't you?"

"Because I'm forbidden! All gods are, we're not allowed to see our children, no matter how much we want to."

I looked at my father with scrutinizing eyes.

"You broke that rule didn't you?" Poseidon's eyes widened slightly. "I keep having the same dream, it's of a man standing above me and smiling. He goes to pick me up but he hears something and leaves. That man was you wasn't it?"

Poseidon nodded and sighed again.

"You were only a week old, and I hadn't even had the chance to hold you. So when I knew Zeus wouldn't catch me I went to see. I thought you're mother was asleep, but she must have know you were awake she's what stopped me from holding you. You were my little girl, and you were and still are my first and only daughter. It was a stroke of luck that you were born, I still remember the day Sally told me she was pregnant." He chuckled at the distant memory.

"You loved her," I stated. He nodded sadly and swallowed once before speaking again.

"I still do. She's a goddess among mortals, you can't help but notice her." I laughed slightly

"She does stand out doesn't she." He laughed with me and nodded, before he turned serious again.

"I know it's a lot to ask, but do you think you can forgive me?"

I looked into his pleading eyes before looking down at my shoes and crossed my arms. I thought for a moment then opened my mouth to say something, only for it to close again. I sighed deeply and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, I was getting really tired and at the moment I just wanted my bed back at camp.

"I can try," I said finally. "After all, I still want my father."

I looked back at my father and the look of sheer happiness on his face was enough to break me, without thinking, I moved forward and wrapped my arms around his waist. He froze for a moment before wrapping his arms around me and pulled me closer to him.

"My little girl," I heard him mumble into my hair before he let me go.

"I think it's about time you left, you look exhausted." I nodded and turned around to leave.

"Sophia," I turned at the sound of my name and watched my father struggle for words. "It was nice meeting you."

I laughed.

"You to, goodbye father."

He raised his hand and gave, me a slightly awkward wave. I took that as me queue to leave, so I turned and headed back to the big wooden doors that would lead me outside. Just as I was about to pull the door's open, someone else pushed them open and Apollo appear from the outside. He held the door open for me.

"Thank you milord," I said giving him a slight bow.

"It's Apollo sweetheart, anything more formal than that makes me feel old." I smirked at his bad joke and he gave me a smile in return. As I was passing through the doorway he gave me a slight pat on the shoulder then moved to where my father was standing in the middle of the room, leaving the door close on my face.

"How'd it go?" I spun around to see Will leaning against a railing looking at me.

"Alright I guess," I answered and walked passed him to begin my descent down the stairs.

"Just alright?" He asked catching up to me and shoved his hands into his jean pockets.

"Well yeah. I mean we sorted everything out, and I no longer hate my father."

"You hated him?" He asked looking at me in shock.

"Not completely," I shrugged. "A little bit maybe, but everything's fine now. What about you, how'd it go with your father?"

"Same I guess," He said. "Except he said that he was proud to call me his son, and that he was proud that I agreed to come on this quest."

"You must be happy" I smiled and looked at him from the corner of my eye to see a huge smile glued onto his face.

"I am,"

We walked in silence for a few minutes before Will spoke up once again.

"He also asked me to give my mom a chance."

"Are you?" I asked coming to a stop just as he did. Will sighed and rubbed the back of his neck.

"I don't know. I _think_ I want to, but I don't want to see her killing herself by using all those drugs."

"Didn't you say she was clean?" He nodded.

"I'm worried that she'll go back to it." Seeing that he was worried and scared I wrapped an arm around his shoulder giving him a one armed hug and led him back down the stairs.

"I think you should do it. I mean, you won't know unless you try. And if you're unsure you could stay with her for a couple of months and if you think it won't work you could always go back to camp."

"That was actually kinda smart of you." He came to a stop and gave me a teasing smile. "I almost forgot that you were a seaweed brain."

He ducked away from my hand and ran ahead of me down the stairs. I laughed and chased after him, determined to catch him.

* * *

><p>I finally caught Will and was able to land a slight slap to the back of his head. We ended up walking the rest of the way laughing and joking with each other. You wouldn't have though that just moments before we were at the brink of a war.<p>

As we came to the bottom of the stairs I ended up banging into Will as he came to a stop in front of me.

"What's wrong?" I asked, moving so that I could see his face. When I looked away from Will I noticed that minor gods and goddesses lined the edges of the roads watching us.

I glanced at Will cautiously and together we walked forward, keeping our hands in close to our weapons in case we were attacked. But surprisingly enough, instead of attacking they started bowing. Every time we passed a god or goddess they lowered into a deep bow.

I looked at Will questionably but he just shrugged at me, just as confused as I was. We continued walking whilst keeping a close eye on the bowing gods. And they didn't stop bowing to us until the door's to the elevator where closed and we were blocked from their view. For now at least.

* * *

><p><strong>AN Wow, one more chapter to, I can;t believe it! I'm sorry for the long wait for this chapter but it's finally here, and I promise that I will upload as fast as I can for the next chapter. I have a three day weekend starting tomorrow so I should be able to finish it by tuesday. And if I don't it'll be done by the end of the week.**

**Any way, I'm going to say the same thing I've been saying for a few chapters now, but theres a poll on my profile about the third story and if you can, please vote or just tell me in a review on whether or not Rachel should be a girl or not. Either way, I have an idea on what to do no matter what the desicion is.**

**So until next time, please review and let me know what you think. See you all soon,**

**WelshGirl4Life**


	21. The Prophecy comes true

**I Don't Own Percy Jackson**

* * *

><p>In a way, Will and I were lucky to get back to camp so late, for one thing everyone was asleep and probably didn't know we were back yet, well, nearly everyone. Grover had woken Chiron up when he had gotten back to let him know we were safe and alive, so Chiron had taken it upon himself to wait for us.<p>

He had let us know that by morning, everyone would know that we were back, and we wouldn't be getting a moment of peace for at least a few days and that we had better enjoy the quiet as much as possible. He told us that we could stay in bed for as long as we wanted to catch up on missing sleep. He told Will, who had complained that wouldn't work for him, because knowing his siblings, they'd probably wake him up begging to know how the quest went, especially his younger siblings. So Chiron offered to let him stay in the Big House for one night only. I had suggested that Will should spend the night in my cabin, but Chiron wouldn't allow. Saying it was because of a rule that camp had that said that ' unless you had the same parent, no boy or girl could stay in the same cabin'.

So, after saying good night, Will and I headed in separate directions. Planning on getting a proper good night's sleep. Something we hadn't had since leaving camp two weeks ago. Unless of course the one night we actually slept at the Lotus Casino and Hotel back in Vegas, but I don't think spending the night in a time stopping hotel really counts.

I sighed in relief when I reached my cabin; it felt so good to see it again. I opened the door and breathed in the familiar scent of the sea that seemed to fill the room. Locking the door behind me, I made my way to me bed and just stood and looked at everything I had left behind. On top of my bedside table the Minotaur horn sat in the centre, just in front of the sea shell lamp that I had just turned on. On the floor at the foot of the table were the toiletries Luke had gotten for me when I had moved into his cabin. My bed was still unmade, just like it had been when I had left. I smiled to myself. No matter what happened. This was home to me, and I didn't want to lose it.

Figuring that I had better get ready for bed, I made my way around the cabin closing the thin blue curtains. After my little task was done, I changed into my old pyjamas and slipped into bed. As cheesy as it sounds, I was still smiling when I fell asleep. But could you blame me? I was home.

* * *

><p>Unfortunately, good thing don't always go the way we plan them to. Especially with me. I was woken up the next morning by someone banging like crazy on my door. I groaned and pulled my pillow over my head, praying that whoever was at the door would leave. When they didn't I dragged myself from my bed and trudged to the door. Planning to too punch whoever was there in the face.<p>

I threw the door open after unlocking it glared at a guilty looking satyr.

"Please don't kill me"

"You have ten seconds Grover before I decide that you could do with some quality time with my uncle."

"Everyone's going to the camp fire and Chiron told me to get you."

"What about Will?" I let out a big yawn. Don't judge me, I was tired.

"Annabeth's gone to get him."

"Alright fine. What time do I have to be there?" Grover shrugged

"Chiron said to give you time to shower and get dressed, so probably half an hour."

"Will there be food?" He nodded. "Give me twenty minutes." I slammed the door in his face and was about to make my way to my shower when I remembered something.

"Grover?" I called when I opened the door once again only to come face to face with his surprised one. "Sorry, but a quick warning. If you ever wake me up again by banging on my door, you definitely will be spending some time with my uncle."

Then, without waiting for an answer, I shut the door on his face, again.

* * *

><p>Like me, Will had almost killed the person waking him up, Annabeth said she had been surprised to the son of Apollo looking so angry when normally he was calm and hardly raised his voice, I just told her that if he continued to hang around with me she'd have to get used to it.<p>

But as it turned out, I ended up being actually kind of glad that Grover woke me up. The camp had thrown a sort of welcome home kind of party for the three of us in the only way they could.

We ended up burning shrouds that the camp had made for the three of us in case we didn't return. The Apollo cabin and sown a golden shroud with musical notes, an archer preparing to fire at the sun, his youngest siblings, who were about five (they were triplets that a satyr had risked his life for when their mother had been killed) had obviously wanted to add something to the golden cloth had covered as much of it as possible with red paint and green paint. Grover's satyr friends had made him one out of green fabric with brown stitching, they had made sure to put everything Grover loved onto the one piece of fabric, like flower, food, music and for some strange reason tin cans.

And since I had no one in my cabin to make one for me, the Athena cabin had made one for me. I had been surprised that the Athena cabin had made me a shroud, but Annabeth had said that it was her way of saying sorry, and it was either her cabin, or Clarisse's cabin. The latter not being too happy that I had come back to camp relatively in good shape, and made sure to express this. My shroud was a mixture of sea blue and green, and was similar to Grover's in design. Because I hadn't been here for that long, they didn't know me that well. But from the short amount of time that Annabeth and I had been around each other she had learnt a few things about me. Like a miniature picture of the camp lake, a sword master, a trident and a trident. But the only thing that mine had that the others didn't was writing on it. In grey thread was one singular word in ancient Greek. Sorry.

I had to laugh at that, and ended up giving Annabeth a big hug and said that she had nothing to be sorry for. Out parents were rivals, and it's only natural for us to feel the same way as they did, even if we had nothing to do with the feud.

Apollo's cabin ended up playing some music and led a camp sing-along and refused to let Will help lead them as they believed that he needed a break, Will had been a bit upset about that but eventually started clapping along to the songs like everyone else and had as much of a laugh as everyone else.

About three hours into the celebrations, Chiron came around and handed out small beads to everyone. Once he got to me, he gave me mine on a piece of thin leather, similar to Will's and told me that it was time for me to 'start collecting'. Looking at the bead I smiled, on the small brown bead was a green trident. Symbolising my claiming.

* * *

><p>We ended up spending the entire day just messing about near the campfire, Chiron said that we had rarely anything to celebrate, as birthday's were only celebrated within the cabin you belonged to and festivals only happened every so often, and most of time not everyone at camp was there to celebrate them as people went home to go to school or just to spend some time with their families. So Chiron had explained that the campers had jumped at the chance to have a party.<p>

The next day though, we had to get back to work and training. But I had somehow convinced Chiron to let me go and see if my mother was home yet. He had agreed, but only if I let him call me a cab so that he knew that I would actually made it back to camp. He said that I had an hour to spend with my mother, and that as soon as that hour was; I had to find a cab to bring me back to camp. And that he'd know if I went over the time limit.

The entire cab ride to my apartment I kept moving around like. I kept moving about to the point the cabbie had ended up glaring at me through the rear view mirror.

And, typically, as soon as I had paid him and stepped out of the yellow cab he sped off. Leaving me on the sidewalk looking like a complete idiot.

I looked up at the familiar brick building and took a deep breath. I couldn't figure out why I was so nervous, it was only my mother. Well, it's now or never.

I walked along the plain halls until I came to the door I always spent running in and out of as a child. I raised my hand and hesitantly knocked. After a couple of seconds of complete silence I heard the sound of someone approaching.

I smiled sheepishly as the door opened and revealed my mother, who looked as though she was having trouble believing that I was here.

"Hey mom. Mind if I come in?" Instead of moving aside like I hoped she would, she just stared at me blankly. "I can come back if yo-"

She cut me off by pulling me into a tight hug.

"Thank the Gods you're okay." She murmured into my hair.

"I missed you mom." I whimpered, pulling her closer to me, still trying to believe that she was here safe and sound and not dead like I had thought she was just a couple of days ago.

"I missed you too sweetheart," She released me from her tight grip and led me side into the green kitchen we had spent so much time in before I found out I was a demigod.

She sat me down and went to fetch us a can of coke each.

"So tell me," She started, sliding me a can while she opened her one. "What happened at camp?"

For about ten minutes, I told her the shortened version of what happened from the moment the Minotaur got hold of her to me getting back to camp.

"Wow," She said looking at me impressed. "Sounds like one heck of an adventure"

"I know, and I'm not planning on having another one for a long time." I said picking at the blue chocolate chip cookies my mom had set out for us to share. She said she had made them after she had woken up in her bed and realized that she was back home. So she had made them thinking I'd be coming back at some point.

"See to it that you do that. I don't want to wake up one morning and end up getting told that my daughter is dead."

"I'll try me hardest not to end up dead," I promised.

We sat in silence munching on the amazing cookies she had created.

"So tell me about this Will boy," She said suddenly. "He sounds like a good friend"

"He is," I nodded.

"Is he cute?"

"Mom!" I looked at her shocked where had that come from?

"What?" He said raising her hands up in surrender. "I'm only trying to have some girl talk with my daughter. Is that a crime?"

"Yes," I laughed and threw a chunk of cookie at her.

We laughed for a moment before we fell silent when we heard something crash in the living room.

"Wait here," I told her before pulling my pen out of my jacket. The one Will gave me, but before you think the wrong things I was only wearing it because it was comfortable.

I walked quietly into the living room, not wanting whoever was in there to know that I was there. I looked carefully into the living room, making sure I wouldn't be attacked immediately after looking in. I looked around in confusion when the only thing I found in the room was a brown box sitting in the middle of the living room floor.

"Hey mom? Was this box here before?"

"What box?" She asked and peered around my shoulder to see what I was on about. "Oh that one. Nope, never seen it before."

"Hmmmm," I walked forward slowly, hoping nothing was going to jump out of it. When nothing did, I peered at the top of it. Sitting on the top of the box was a familiar slip of paper, only it had something extra written on it and had a small piece of paper stapled onto the back.

_Olympus_

_600th Floor Empire State Building_

_New York_

_NY_

_Hope you have a wonderful day, Sophia Jackson_

_*Return to sender_

I flipped the address sheet over so I could see the paper on the back and laughed.

_As much as the gods appreciated you're gift,_

_I figured you would put it to good use._

_Hope you have a wonderful day, Poseidon_

"What's so funny?" I handed my mom the letter and looked at the box curiously. What should I do with it? "I always thought that you and your father shared the same sense of humour."

I looked up to see my mother looking at the note with a sad smile on her face.

"He still loves you, you know."

"It doesn't matter, I can't see him anymore." I wrapped my arm around her waist and pulled her to me.

"If it helps, he misses you to." She gave me one of her famous 'annoyed' looks so I dropped my arm and changed the subject. "So what are we going to do with this?"

She shrugged, looking slightly happier with the change of subject.

"How am I meant to know? You're the expert." I snorted.

"I'm no expert."

"Out of the two of us who's got the most experience with sort of thing?" She had a point.

"That doesn't mean I know what to do with it."

"We stood in silence for a few moments before the door crashing open caught our attention.

"Woman! Where's my meatloaf?"

My mother sighed and I looked at her pointedly.

"Sophia no! How could you think that?" She exclaimed.

"Quite easily, look, we don't need to have him around anymore and instead of going through the trouble of divorce why not use her?" I asked pointing towards the box. "I'm sure she'll be glad to help."

"Sophia Persephone Jackson that's wrong. We can't do that to him,"

"Then you shouldn't have married him."

"Sophia, I've told you a thousand times before, I did it to -"

"Yeah, yeah I know. You did it to protect me. But now that I know who I am there's no point. My sent will be too strong for even him to cover."

She opened her mouth to answer me but ended up being stopped by the appearance of a walrus standing in the door way of the living room.

"Ye'r back are ye?" He growled when he spotted me.

"Don't worry, I was just leaving." I looked at my mother pointedly as I left.

"Well? Where's my meatloaf?"  
>"I'm just about to take it out of the oven Gabe. While I'm getting that, why don't you take a look at the parcel someone dropped off for you?"<p>

I smirked as I left the apartment; I think my mom has finally decided that enough was enough.

* * *

><p>Summer went by a lot quicker than expected, and soon notices went up everywhere telling half-bloods that they had to let Chiron know if they were staying for the rest of the year or if we were going home. There was a week left, but Chiron wanted to told as soon as possible to get plane and train tickets for those who lived to far away for parents to pick them up. There was a camp van taking people who lived in the city home if we didn't have a way home. We were told that if we didn't say we were leaving or staying the harpies would end up eating anyone who stayed behind and wasn't meant to. To be honest, I don't think he was joking.<p>

There was something I wished I had noticed a lot sooner than I actually did, and if I had remembered this small, important piece of information, it probably would have saved everyone a lot of time. There was one line of the prophecy I was given that had yet to be completed, but I had been spending most of my time in camp trying to make the most of my summer while I still could.

I had just came back from letting Chiron know I was going to be leaving at the same time as everybody else would be when Luke had came up to me asking if I wanted to spend some time with him killing monsters.

"I have soda," He said holding up a six pack for me to see.

Looking back, I should have realized that a sixteen year old, just about to turn seventeen, wanted to spend some quality time alone with a just turned thirteen year old was a little bit weird in normal circumstances. But I figured that since it was Luke, and since he had soda, something demigods where advised not to have due to so much sugar there was in one can, I figured that there would be no harm. And come on, have you seen Luke? I was pretty sure that every girl at camp would think I was stupid to say no to spending time with him. As it was, I'm pretty sure most of them glared at me when they saw me walking side by side with Luke to the forest alone.

As much as I now hate to admit it, I actually did have a good time with him. We didn't go really far into the forest, just far enough that people wouldn't see or hear us and far enough in that there was actually monsters around to fight. After two hours of just killing monsters, we sat down on a pair of rocks to drink the fizzy drinks that would guarantee to make a demigod go completely crazy after the second can. As proven by the two twins of Hermes, Connor and Travis Stoll. Only don't call them twins, they'll just deny it.

The two of us sat in silence sipping at our drinks until Luke spoke up.

"I never asked, how'd it go with the gods?" I shrugged.

"As well as it could I guess, why?" He ignored my question and asked another one himself.

"They didn't do anything to you did they?" I shook my head.

"No, why do you want to know." Again he ignored my question.

"And you're father, did he ignore you? Shout at you?" I shook my head again, getting confused.

"No he even said sorry for not being there." Luke snorted

"I'm sure he did,"

"He did." I insisted.

"But did he mean it?"

"Yes. Luke why are you being like this?" Luke let out a small growl and got to his feet, throwing his can to the ground.

"The gods are manipulative. They always make you believe something when it's never true. The charm the hearts of mortals and make them fall in love with them only to break their hearts after promising to always be there only to leave. They use demigods to do things they should be doing themselves. They don't listen to our prayers, they don't help us. Our pain is amusing to them. They ignore their children, they watch them suffer. You're father didn't mean what he said to you. He wants' you believe him so he can use you. He'll end up killing you, can't you see that?"

"No, I can't," I said defiantly. Luke didn't answer and threw his arms up in frustration. "Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine; it's you we should be worried about."

"Excuse me?"

"Can't you see?"

"See what?" I asked, getting frustrated

"You're under their spell," He answered getting to his knees in front of me and grabbed my arms.

"Luke, are you high?" He growled and shook me violently.

"Listen to me!"

"I am, but all I'm hearing is you sounding like a crazy person."

"I'm not crazy!"

"Could have fooled me."

"Listen to me," He screamed

"I am!"

"No you're not! You're listening to the gods when you shouldn't be."  
>"Really? Because I was under the impression I was talking to you, not them."<p>

"You're not listening to what I'm saying. The gods are lying to you, they're using you."

"Look I'm going to find Will or someone, you needs help." I said standing up only to be pushed back down roughly by Luke who was looking at me with a manic look in his eye.

"I can't let you do that. If you won't help me I have to get rid of you."

"You haven't asked me to help you. I don't even know what you want help with."

"Join me," He said suddenly

"What?"

"Join me; together we can destroy the gods. We can live in a free world, a world run by titans. We wouldn't have to worry about anyone controlling us."

"You're mental." I said shaking my head, trying to push him away from me but he was too strong. He shook his head violently, his hair flopping all over the place.

"I can't let you leave, you'll just tell everyone," He stood up and ran his hand through his tousled hair. "I'm sorry for what I'm about to do."

He murmured a few words in ancient Greek, I didn't know enough to be able to figure out what he said but I knew I didn't like the feeling that surrounded me. A small cloud appeared over my head and a miniature object fell out and hit me on the head. I raised my hand to try and see what it was but Luke stopped me.

"I wouldn't do that if I was you," he said "Any sudden movement and you'll be injected by poison that will kill you quickly if you don't get any help. And since you're precious son of Apollo isn't around to save you again, I doubt you'll even live to see the next daylight."

"There's nothing going on between me and Will," I said trying to ignore the feeling of something trying to crawl down my body. "We're just friends."

"Don't lie to me,"

"I'm not lying." I said defensively.

"We could have been great together you know, I would have made you my queen."

"You're sick," I cried as I tried to stay as still as possible when I got to see what was crawling down me. A grey scorpian was looking up at me with his black beedy eyes, his stinger poissed at the ready above my thigh.

"Maybe, but it's you're loss. It was nice knowing you Sophia. We won't, be seeing each other again."

I watched with hidden panic as he turned around and walked further into the forest, until he disappeared.

I looked down at the scorpian carefully, trying not to startle it with sudden movements. It was still looking up at me, unblinking. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest at the thought of what I was about to do.

As quickly as I could my hand shot to my pocket and pulled out my sword quickly uncapped it and swung, just as the scorpian jumped up into the air and brought it's stinger down onto my leg.

I screamed in pain as it injected it's poison but I still cut it in half with my sword, people may think I was an idiot, but even I knew that if I wanted to live, I was going to have to move quickly.

Ignoring the pain I ran as fast as I could for the tree line. My eyesight started to get blurry, I could only just see where I was going. It wasn't until I got past the tree line that I let myself fall into the darkness that had been treating to capture me since the poison first hit my blood.

With one feeble cry for help, I let my eyes close and I fell to the ground, until all I saw was blackness.

* * *

><p>Sunlight hit my closed eyelids causing me to groan and scrunch my eyes tighter, trying to stop the light that was giving me a headache.<p>

"Morning sunshine," A familiar cheerful voice filtered through my ears and I groaned as my headache worsened.

"Don't be so loud," I moaned as rubbed my head, trying to relieve myself of the pain.

"If you open your eyes I'll give you a piece of ambrosia."

"Can you turn off the lights?" I heard him chuckle and I heard curtains being closed and the sound of a switch being turned off. When I could no longer see any lights I opened my eyes. I was back in the infirmary and although the closed curtains didn't block all of the sunlight out, it was a lot better than what it had been.

"Thank you," I murmured as he handed me a small, golden square of the familiar food of the gods.

"Eat it slowly and as soon as you can't feel any pain put it down okay?" I nodded but winced at the pain it caused me.

When I could feel the pain disappearing I spoke again.

"What happened?" Will looked up from where he had been tiding up some medical supplies and smirked.

"I know you're a seaweed brain, but I thought that even you could tell you were poisoned."

"I meant pretty boy," I started, glaring at the blonde who had gone back to cleaning. "What happened _after _I collapsed?"

"Michael found you, you know, my brother. The head councillor of my cabin?"

"Yeah I know," I snapped.

"Well luckily he had been heading to the infirmary to start his shift so he had some supplies on him and was able to remove some of the poison from your body then carried you here where we helped him get rid of the rest of the poison. And you've been for the last four days."

"So that means I'm leaving tomorrow?" I asked, groaning when he nodded. I didn't want this summer to end, I finally found a place where I belonged and now I had to leave it. But on the plus side, at least now that meant that I could spend more time with my mom. When I had last spoken to her she had told me that she had gotten me enrolled at a school not far from our apartment, so that meant that I could go home every day to see her, something we were both happy about.

"It also means that I'll be leaving today," My head shot up to look at Will with wide eyes.

"You're leaving?" He nodded.

"I've decided to give my mom a chance, and if it doesn't work out, I'll leave."

"Nervous?"

"Extremely," He sighed.

"Well you've always got the camp. And you can always call if you want someone to talk to."

"True, but I'm still nervous. I haven't seen her in two years, I know she said she was sober but I doubt she's been sober for long. What if she goes back to how she was before?"

"You can only wait and see Will."

We collapsed into an awkward silence. Neither of us sure what to say. A car horn beeped in the distance and Will sighed.

"That's probably mom," I smiled sympathetically as he looked petrified. "I should probably go."

"Probably," I agreed. He crossed the room and grabbed a bag that I hadn't noticed before and threw it over his shoulder. "Good luck Will."

"See you next summer?" I nodded.

"Defiantly," I waved as he left the room, but before he could close the door behind him I called him back.

"What?" He asked, sticking his head in through the door.

"In case I forget, Happy Birthday."

"My birthday isn't for two months," He pointed out, his eyebrows scrunching up in confusion.

"You know me, I'm a seaweed brain. I'll probably forget." I gave him a cheeky grin.

"Thank you," He said laughing. "See you seaweed brain."

"See you pretty boy."

When the door finally slid shut, I sighed as I fell back onto the bed and turned the golden cake like substance over in my hands. Next summer seemed like ages away. I wouldn't be able to see my friends, or the beautiful lake that I had spent most of my time at or taste the amazing food the camp always served until next summer.

The only good thing was that I could finally spend time with my mom, with no disturbances or Smelly Gabe ordering her around when we tried to spend time together. It was just going to be the two of us, and I couldn't wait.

At least I could spend next summer in normality, with no quests and no gods threatening my own life. I could spend it with just Grover and Will, and actually have a normal summer. Well, relatively normal. After all, I was the daughter of a God.

* * *

><p><strong>AN wow, finally finished.**

**I'd like to thank everyone who's reviewed:**

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**And to everyone else either favorited or followed ny story and myself. Thank you so much guys, I really appreaciated it.**

**Unfortunatley I won't be uploaded the Sea of Monsters until the first day of my summer holiday's as I don't think I'll be able to finish the first chapter until then. But I have got some of it done already so who knows.**

**Anyway, thanks once again to everyone who's been reading this, and I'll see all again when the Sea of Monsters gets posted.**

**WelshGirl4Life**


	22. AN 2

**A/N - Updated Chapters:**

**Chapter 1 - My maths teacher explodes**

**Chapter 2 - Evil Scissors**

**Chapter 3 - Promises**

**Chapter 4 - Mr. Bullman has anger issues**

**Chapter 5 - I meet an old horse**

**Chapter 6 - It all blows up in my face**


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